Saint Sava, Archbishop of Serbia

Life

Sava was the son of Stefan Nemanja, the Grand Prince of Serbia, born in the year 1169. As a young man he yearned for the spiritual life, because of which he fled to the Holy Mountain where he became a monk and with rare zeal passed through the entire ascetic rule. Nemanja followed the example of his son, and he himself came to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk and died as the monk Simeon. Sava obtained from the emperor and patriarch the independence of the Serbian Church, and became the first Serbian Archbishop. He built, together with his father, the monastery of Hilandar, and afterward many other monasteries, churches and schools throughout the Serbian land. He traveled twice on pilgrimage to the holy places in the Holy Land. He made peace between his brothers, who were quarreling over power; he made peace between the Serbs and their neighbors, and creating the Serbian Church, he thereby created the Serbian state and culture. He brought peace among all the Balkan peoples and worked for the good of all, because of which he was honored and loved by all the Balkans. To the Serbian people he gave a Christian soul, which did not perish with the fall of the Serbian state. He ended his life in Trnovo in the time of Tsar Asen, having fallen ill after the Divine Liturgy on Theophany, January 12, 1236. His body was transferred by King Vladislav to the Mileševa monastery, whence Sinan Pasha exhumed it and burned it at Vračar in Belgrade, April 27, 1594 (see April 27).

From the Hymn of Praise

A virgin most beautiful, noble Nina,Became by Providence an apostle of the Georgians.Despite the persecution of Emperor Diocletian,She with the cross baptized King Mirian