Saint Sava

Gračanica Monastery, 14th century fresco

The Gračanica Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in Kosovo. It was built by the Serbian king Stefan Milutin in 1321 on the ruins of a 6th-century basilica. The monastery was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and on 13 July 2006 it was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List under the name of Medieval Monuments in Kosovo as an extension of the Visoki Dečani site which was overall placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The Gračanica Monastery is one of King Milutin's last monumental endowments. The monastery is located in Gračanica, a Serbian enclave in the close vicinity of Lipljan, the old residence of bishops of Lipljan.

Sveti Sava, or Saint Sava, was born in 1169 or 1174, as Rastko Nemanjic.  He was the youngest of three sons born to Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and his wife, Princess Anna. 

Sveti Sava is the patron Saint of Serbs, Serbian children and Serbian education.  

Stefan Nemanja is known to history as the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty of Serbian medieval kings.  He united almost all Serb lands under his rule, thereby creating the first united Serbian state.

In around 1190 Rastko Nemanjic was named the prince of Hum by his father, and sent there to rule that territory in his father’s name.  Hum was located in the area of what we know today as Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia.

In the autumn of 1192, Rastko Nemanjic left Hum and traveled to the monasteries of the Mount Athos area of northern Greece.  It should be noted that he left Hum against the express wishes of his parents.  Athonite monks had been frequent visitor’s to the Serbian royal court and these visits may have convinced Rastko to pursue a monastic life.

He entered the Saint Panteleimon monastery, a Russian monastery, on Mount Athos.  He took monastic vows and adopted the name Sava (in honour of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, a saint and monk that lived in the Holy Land in the 5th and 6th centuries).  He later moved to the Greek monastery of Vatopedi, also on Mount Athos, and spent seven years at Vatopedi.

In 1196, Stefan Nemanja abdicated the throne and became a monk himself, taking the name Simeon.  His second son, Stefan, succeeded him as Grand Prince. 

At one point, Sava visited the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios III Angelos, and it is during this visit that the Emperor gifted the abandoned Hilandar monastery, also on Mount Athos, to Sava and his father, monk Simeon.

The Hilandar monastery was soon renovated and rebuilt by Sava and Simeon as a haven for Serb monks on Mount Athos.  The founding of this monastery is dated to around 1198 or 1199.  Sveti Sava wrote the original typikon (a set of monastic rules) for Hilandar.  The Hilandar monastery exists to this day, and is considered by many to be the most-important and most-holy of all Serbian monasteries. 

Sveti Sava’s father died in 1199.  By that point a civil war was already raging between Sava’s two older brothers, Stefan and Vukan, for the throne of Serbia as Vukan resented the fact that his younger brother Stefan was chosen by their father to succeed to the throne.  Stefan eventually emerged as the victor in this war.

Sava returned to Serbia from Athos in the period 1205 to 1207 (the exact year is not known).  He brought with him the remains of his father.  Those remains were originally entombed at Hilandar, but were relocated by Sveti Sava to the Studenica monastery (a monastery which had been built by Sava’s father).  Upon his return, he was also able to reconcile his two older brothers - the victorious Stefan and the defeated Vukan.

By this point, Sava had extensive theological knowledge, and he set about educating the people of Serbia in the Christian laws and traditions, as well as extensively promoting cultural and medical knowledge.  At this time, Sava was the Abbott of the Studenica monastery and wrote a typikon for that monastery.  During this period, Studenica gained a very high level of independence from the Rashka Bishopric and the Ohrid Archbishopric.

Sava returned to Athos in 1217, perhaps as a reaction to the fact that his brother Stefan had received a royal Crown from the Pope in Rome.  The coronation of Stefan elevated Serbia to the status of a kingdom and it was now almost an independent state.

On August 15, 1219, Sava was consecrated the first Archbishop of an independent Serbian orthodox church, by the Patriarch of Constantinople in Nicaea.  From that point forward, the Serbian church was fully independent and no longer subordinate to the Archbishop of Ohrid.  The creation of this church also meant full political independence for the Serbian medieval state.  This new Archbishopric was initially centred at the Zica monastery, which had been built by Sava’s brother King Stefan.

That same year, at an assembly at Zica, Sava named new Bishops and Bishoprics for the newly-independent church.  A bishopric is a geographical area under the jurisdiction of a Bishop.

Also in 1219, Sava wrote a document known as the Zakonopravilo - this document is recognized as the first constitution of Serbia and through it Christian Orthodoxy became the state religion of Serbia.

In 1229, Sava undertook a visit to the Holy Land, and it was during his stay at the Mar Sabba monastery in Palestine that he was gifted the Mlekopitateljnica icon from the 5th century,  Trojerucica icon of the Virgin Mary with Christ, and the crosier of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified also from the 5th century.  The tomb of Saint Sabbas was, and still is, located at that monastery.  The Trojerucica (or Three-Handed) icon had been brought to Mar Sabba by Saint John of Damascus in the 8th century.

These gifts were brought by Sveti Sava to Mount Athos.  The Three-Handed icon was brought specifically to Hilandar, where it remains to this day  The icon is considered the holiest of all items located at Hilandar.  The other two holy items can be found in a monastic cell in another part of Athos.

Sava undertook a second trip to the Holy Land in 1234.  Prior to embarking on this trip, he named his loyal pupil, Arsenije Sremac, as his successor to the throne of Archbishop.  The church we are standing in today is in fact dedicated to Saint Arsenije Sremac.

On his way home from this trip, Sava visited the Bulgarian capital of Tarnovo.  By this point he was already quite ill.  He passed away at Tarnovo on, it is believed, the 27th of January 1235.  He was buried in the Holy Forty Martyrs Church in Tarnovo.

After numerous requests from his nephew, King Vladislav of Serbia, Sava’s remains were returned to Serbia and buried at the Mileseva monastery, in 1237.  After his death, Sveti Sava was canonized as a Saint of the Orthodox Church.  His feast day is January 27th, and it is celebrated by all Orthodox people, regardless of nationality.

The memory and power of Sveti Sava was so great that, through the years, his remains and relics at Mileseva were venerated not only by Orthodox pilgrims, but also by Catholic and Muslim pilgrims, and donations were made to Mileseva monastery by people of all faiths.

In 1594, Serbs of the Banat region rose up against Turkish rule.  In retaliation, that same year the remains of Sveti Sava were taken from Mileseva and burned at the Vracar Plateau in Belgrade on April 27th.  However, the left hand of the Saint is believed to have been saved, and is located at the Mileseva monastery.

The Vracar Plateau is now the site of the Temple of Saint Sava.  This temple was not fully completed until last year, and is one of the largest churches in the entire world.