St. Sava of Serbia
Born Rastko Nemanjic around 1174, the son of Grand Zupan Stefan Nemanja, he fled as a young man to Mount Athos, where he became the monk Sava and, together with his father (St. Simeon the Myrrh-gusher), founded the Serbian monastery of Hilandar in 1198.
In 1219 he was consecrated at Nicaea as the first Archbishop of the newly autocephalous Serbian Church, organizing its dioceses, crowning his brother Stefan as first king of Serbia, and compiling the Nomocanon (Zakonopravilo), the first Serbian code of church and civil law. After two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, he reposed at Trnovo, Bulgaria, in 1236, and his relics were later enshrined at Milesevo Monastery until the Ottomans burned them in Belgrade in 1595.
No recorded sayings. Read the Life to meet this saint.
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.
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.
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