Sava was born Prince Rastko Nemanjic, the son of Stefan Nemanja, the Serbian
ruler and founder of the medieval Serbian state. His brother, Stefan
Prvovencani, was the first Serbian king. Rastko Nemanjic was born in either 1175
or 1176.

In the early 1190s, the young Rastko left home to join the Orthodox monastic community on Mount Athos. Taking monastic vows,
he was given the name Sava (Serbian form of Sabbas) in honour of
St. Sabbas.
Initially, he joined a Russian monastery, but then moved to the Greek Vatopedi Monastery. At the end of
1197, his father, Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, joined him. In 1198, together
they moved to and restored the abandoned Hilandar monastery, which at that
time became the center of Serbian Orthodox Christian monastic life.

St. Sava's father took monastic vows under the name Simeon. He died in
the Hilandar Monastery on February
13, 1200. He is also canonized as Saint Simeon.

After his father's death, Sava retreated to an ascetic cell in Kareya which he built himself
in 1199. He also wrote the Kareya and Hilandar Typika. The last Kareya typikon is inscribed into the marble
board at the ascetic cell. He stayed on Athos until the end of 1207.

When Sava entered his native land in 1207, he unfortunately found the country
just as Simeon had informed him in his dream—in total disarray. The Serbian
state was split in two. By secret negotiations with Hungary and Pope Innocent
III, Vukan, the eldest of the three brothers, who was bitter over the
appointment of his younger brother Stephen as heir to the throne, was able to
amass troops and capture Zeta; he then was set to launch a campaign against
Raška, Stephen's portion of the divided kingdom. This civil war was only a
microcosm of a larger conflict instigated by the West—that is, the hostilities
initiated by the Great Crusades of the Latin church. In 1204, the soldiers of
the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople and much of the territory of
Byzantium, including the Holy Mountain. In 1205, the Holy Mountain was
officially placed under the authority and jurisdiction of a Roman Catholic
bishop. It is believed that this occurrence was the most influential factor in
Sava's decision to return to Serbia. Hence, the Saint returned home with his
work cut out for him.

When he returned, Sava brought with him the medicine to heal the entire
situation: the relics of his father, the
Grand Župan and saint, Stephen Nemanja—Simeon the Myrrh-flowing and co-founder
of Hilandar. Upon entering Studenica Monastery, St. Simeon's foundational
monastery, Sava invited his two brothers to a proper and rightful memorial service
for their father. As the casket was opened, before their eyes the body of their
father was found to be sweet-smelling, exuding a fragrant oil and myrrh, warm and aglow, looking very much alive, as if he were
only restfully sleeping. This act of veneration of their father was the first step in healing
the fraternal schism between Vukan and Grand Prince Stephen. Shortly thereafter,
the civil war was halted and a peace agreement was drawn up, once again
restoring the kingdom of Serbia as it was under the reign of the great ruler
Stephen Nemanja. In discussions with his reunited brothers, Sava also designed
plans for an immediate, systematic, and far-reaching missionary program to save the Orthodox souls of the
Serbian people. Studenica Monastery, with St. Simeon's relics making it a
national shrine, was chosen as the outreach station for all activities. Sava vas
appointed Archimandrite of
Studenica. St. Sava wrote the Monastery's Typikon, which strengthened
Studenica's monastic life.

Archbishop

St. Sava managed to persuade the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was
residing in Nicea since Constantinople was
under Latin rule until 1261, to establish the independence of the Serbian Church in the year
of 1219. At Patriarch Manuel's request, Sava was selected to be elevated to
Archbishop. At first, Sava vehemently refused this offer on the grounds that he
was truly unworthy for such a position and calling. He offered several of the
monks from Hilandar who were present as potential candidates for the position.
In the end, Sava accepted and was consecrated in Nicea on the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6, 1219, becoming the first
Archbishop of the newly autocephalous Orthodox Church of Serbia. He was 44 years
old at the time.

The following are the exact words of the Greek text of Patriarch Manuel's
decree elevating Sava to Archbishop, thus granting autocephaly to the Serbian Church:

I, Manuel, the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of the City of
Consrantinople, New Rome, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, have consecrated
Sava, Archbishop of all the Serbian lands, and have given him in God's name the
authority to consecrate bishops, priests, and deacons within his country; to
bind and loose sins of men, and to teach all and to baptize in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, all you Orthodox
Christians, obey him as you have obeyed me.

After his consecration, Sava returned to the Holy Mountain in order to say
farewell to Hilandar and to receive the blessing and prayers of the entire
monastic community of the Holy Mountain.

The newly consecrated Archbishop Sava then traveled by boat to Thessalonica,
where he tarried awhile at Philokalos Monastery. At Philokalos, he, along with a
few others, made a translation from Greek into Slavonic of the Byzantine
ecclesiastical law book The
Rudder or Nomocanon of St. Photios the Great (9th
century). Called KormchajaKnjiga ("Book of the Pilot") in Slavonic, this
translation contained not only the ecclesiastical canons—including the dogmatic decrees of the seven Ecumenical
Councils—with commentaries by the best medieval Greek canonists, but also
numerous precepts of the Fathers of the Church and several of the imperial
edicts of the great Byzantine Emperor Justinian (6th century).

When he arrived in Serbia Sava decided that on the first day of his
archepiscopacy in Žiča, the Feast of the Ascension, 1220, he would, as the as the newly consecrated
Archbishop of Serbia, crown his brother Stephen as the first Serbian king. In
1228 he crowned his nephew Radoslav as king. Venerable Sava decided to visit
Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Thus, in
1229, after ten years of dedicated hard work and fruitful labor in the vineyard
of the Lord in his homeland, Sava decided to renew his own spirit by making a pilgrimage to the cradle of Christianity
itself, Jerusalem, where the Lord first brought salvation to the world. When it
was time for Sava to leave the Holy Land for Serbia, he decided to go by way of
Nicea. There he met with John, the new emperor of Byzantium (1222-1254) now
residing in Nicea, who succeeded Theodore Laskaris. He also met Germanus, the
new patriarch who succeeded the late Patriarch Manuel.

In Serbia a new civil war broke out between Radoslav and his brother
Vladislav. Unfortunately for Radislav, his military prowess waned as well, for
in a fratricidal civil war against his younger brother Vladislav during the
summer of 1233, he was defeated and exiled to Durazzo, Albania. Although Sava
was unsuccessful in reconciling these brothers—who were both disloyal to their
grandfather St. Simeon's call for unity—nevertheless he knew it was better for
the country to be ruled by Vladislav. Several years later, as a result of his
negotiations with King Vladislav, Sava was able to obtain safe conduct for
Radislav, who was allowed to return to Serbia. Unfortunately again for Radislav,
his wife had eloped with a French duke during his exile in Albania. Radislav
then decided to become a monk, and Sava tonsured him, giving him the name "Jovan
(John)."

Retirement

Sava abdicated from archepiscopal see in 1233 and appointed his most capable
pupil St. Arsenije as Archbisop of Serbia (1233-1263). In the spring of 1234,
Archbishop Sava, age 59, only five years after his first trip to the Holy Land,
decided to make a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Upon arrival in Jerusalem,
Sava lodged at the St. George Monastery in Akre, a monastery he had purchased
from the Latins during his first pilgrimage. Sava visited Patriarch Athanasius
of Jerusalem and then went by boat to Alexandria, Egypt, to meet with Pope
Nicholas, "Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa."

He then went to St. Catherine's Monastery on
Mt. Sinai, where he spent Great
Lent of 1234. This was a most blessed Paschal journey for Sava, for he climbed the heights where
the great man of God, Moses the God-seer and
Deliverer of his people, had spent many hours speaking to the Lord God face to
face as a friend converses with a friend. Sava, too, had been a "Moses" to his
people, pastoring, leading and organizing them into a community of God. After
the Paschal celebration of 1234, Sava returned to Jerusalem and then traveled to
Antioch. After visiting Constantinople, Sava intended to visit the Holy Mountain
and Hilandar, but "it did not please the Holy Spirit." Instead, he left for Trnovo, Bulgaria, the
capital of King Ivan Asen II's Bulgarian kingdom and patriarch of Trnovo.

Participating in a ceremony called Blessing of the Waters (Agiasmo) he
developed a cough that progressed into pneumonia. He died from pneumonia in the
evening between Saturday and Sunday, January 14, 1235. [1] He was buried at the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs in
Trnovo where his body remained until May 6,
1237, when his sacred bones were moved to the
monastery Mileseva in southern Serbia. 360 years later the Ottoman Turks dug up
his relics and burned them in the main square in Belgrade.

Legacy

There were many miracles at the grave of
St. Sava in the Mileševa monastery. Venetian diplomat Ramberty who visited
Mileševa in 1534 wrote that not only Serbs, but also Turks and Jews were
visiting the monastery and asking for healing. French diplomat Jacques de
Chenoais wrote in 1547 that he saw uncorrupted relics of St. Sava; he also said that Turks and Jews were
giving bigger donations than Christians themselves. Another passinger as
Venetian Zen, and French Lescalonieur were reporting about similar events in
1550 and 1574. Lescalonieur wrote that the head of the saint was covered,
because one Turk who saw it died a few decades later.
^{citation needed}

St. Sava is remembered as the founder of the independent Serbian Orthodox
Church and is celebrated as the patron saint of education and medicine among Serbs.
Prince Miloš of Serbia January 13 (Julian), 1830, proclaimed St. Sava the patron
saint of Serb schools and schoolchildren. On his feast day, students partake in
recitals in church.

The Temple of St. Sava in Belgrade, whose construction was planned to start
in 1939 but actually began in 1985 and completed in 2004, is the largest active
Orthodox temple in the world today. It was built on the place where the holy
bones were burned.

Quotation

At first we were confused. The East thought that we were West, while the
West considered us to be East. Some of us misunderstood our place in the clash
of currents, so they cried that we belong to neither side, and others that we
belong exclusively to one side or the other. But I tell you, Ireneus, we are
doomed by fate to be the East in the West and the West in the East, to
acknowledge only heavenly Jerusalem beyond us, and here on earth—no one

—St. Sava to Ireneus, 13th century

Hymnography

Troparion - Tone 3

Thou wast a guide to the Way of Life, a first Hierarch and a teacher;

thou didst come and enlighten thy home country, O Sava,

and give it rebirth by the Holy Spirit.

Thou hast planted thy children like olive trees in the spiritual Paradise.

O Equal-to-the-Apostles and Saints, pray to
Christ our God to grant us His great mercy. ^[2]

Kontakion - Tone 8

As the first great hierarch and co-worker with the Apostles,

the Church of thy people magnifies thee;

and since thou hast found favor with Christ,

save us by thy prayers from every calamity,

so that we may proclaim to thee: Rejoice, God-wise Father Sava.

Troparion - Tone 8

O guide of Orthodoxy and blessed teacher of virtues,

purifier and enlightener of thy homeland,

beauty of monastics,

most wise Father, Holy Sava,

by thy teaching thou didst enlighten thy people,

O flute of the Spirit, pray to Christ God for our souls.