Sava

Religious Figure. He was the First Serb archbishop (serving from 1219 to 1233) and the most important Saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Originally the prince Rastko Nemanjic, he was the son of King Stephen I Nemanja. In his youth (around 1192) he escaped from home to join the orthodox monastic colony on the Mount Athos (Holy Mountain on the Chalkidiki peninsula, Greece) and was given the name Sava. At the end of 1197 his father joined him there. In 1198 together they moved to and restored the abandoned monastery Hilandar, which was from that time the center of Serbian Christian monastic life. Sava returned home in 1207 when a quarrel between his brothers, Stefan II and Vukan, broke into civil war. Sava brought monks with him, founded several monasteries, and began the reformation and education of his country, where religion and education had fallen to a low estate. He brought peace to all the Balkan peoples, working for the good of all, for which he was venerated and loved by all on the Balkan Peninsula. He died in Trnovo (Bulgaria) during the reign of King Asen, after being taken ill following the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Theophany in 1236. King Vladislav took his body to Mileseva monastery. Turkish Sinan Pasha removed it, burning it at Vrachar in Belgrade on May 10, 1595. Saint Sava’s Feast Day is celebrated January 27th.