Saint Sava

Prince, Archbishop, Saint

Saint Sava

In his early age, he ruled for a while the appanage of Zachlumia briefly in 1190-92. After that, he left for Mount Athos where he became a monk with the name Sava.

Saint Sava was the first archbishop of the Serbian church, the former of the Serbian law and a diplomat. He was born in 1169- 1174 and died on 14th of January 1236.

Read more

At Athos he also established the monastery of Hilandar, which became one of the most important cultural and religious centre of the Serbian people. He was recognized as the first Serbian archbishop, regarded as the founder of Serbian medieval literature too.

He is one of he most important figures of Serbian history, venerated by the eastern orthodox church on January 27. His artistic works from Middle Ages to modern times have interpreted his career. He is the patron saint of Serbia and Serbian education too.

The elevation of Serbia into a kingdom did not fully mark the independence of the country, according to that time's understanding, unless the same was achieved with its church. Rulers of such countries, with church bodies subordinated to Constantinople, were viewed as "rulers of lower status who stand under the top chief of the Orthodox Christian world – the Byzantine Emperor". Conditions in Serbia for autocephaly were largely met at the time, with a notable number of learned monks, regulated monastic life, stable church hierarchy, thus "its autocephaly, in a way, was only a question of time".

Info

Autocephaly and church organization

Info

The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade is dedicated to him, being one of the largest church buildings in the world. It was built where the ottomans burnt his remains in 1594 during an uprising where serbs used icons of Sava as their war flags.

Info

The coffin was placed on a pyre and burnt in 1595 by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha. Bogdan Nestorović and Aleksandar Deroko were finally chosen to be the architects in 1932 after a second revised competition in 1926/27. This sudden decision instigated an important debate in interwar Yugoslavia which centered around the temple's size, design and symbolic national function.This was accompanied by a sizeable increase in the base area of the ambitiously conceived project. The new design departed from the competition guidelines issued in 1926, and was to replicate the dimensions and architecture of Hagia Sophia.

Thanks for your attention