Saint Sava
Saint Sava, known as the Enlightener or the Illuminator, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk who became the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church. He was also a writer, diplomat, and the founder of Serbian law.
Sava, born as Rastko Nemanjić, was the youngest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, and ruled the appanage of Zachlumia briefly in 1190–92. He then left for Mount Athos, where he became a monk and took the monastic name Sava. At Athos he established the monastery of Hilandar, which became one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Serbian people. In 1219, the Patriarchate exiled in Nicea recognized him as the first Serbian Archbishop, and in the same year, he authored the oldest known constitution of Serbia, the Zakonopravilo nomocanon, thus securing full religious and political independence. Sava is regarded as the greatest figure of Serbian medieval literature and author of the first Serbian "biography". Specifically, he wrote the life of his father, the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja.
He is widely considered one of the most important figures in Serbian history. The Serbs regard Sava as what Averroes is to the Muslims and Maimonides is to the Jews by virtue of their respective lives and achievements.
Saint Sava is venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on. Many artistic works from the Middle Ages to modern times have interpreted his life. He is the patron saint of Serbia, Serbs, Serbian education, and medicine. The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade is dedicated to him, built on the site where the Ottomans burnt his remains in 1594, during an uprising in which Serbs used icons of Sava as their war flags; the church is one of the largest church buildings in the world.
To distinguish him from other saints and canonized Serbian archbishops of the same name, he is also posthumously titled Saint Sava I of Serbia.
Biography
Early life
Rastko Nemanjić, a diminutive of Rastislav, was born in 1169 or 1174, in the village of Miščiće, in Deževa Valley, in the modern-day administrative area of the City of Novi Pazar. As the youngest son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and his wife Ana, Prince Rastko belonged to the first generation of the Nemanjić dynasty, alongside his brothers Vukan and Stefan. His biographers mention that he was born after a hiatus in the couple's childbearing and was therefore especially dear. At the Serbian court the brothers received a good education in the Byzantine tradition, which exercised great political, cultural and religious influence in Serbia.He grew up in a time of great foreign relations activities in Serbia. Rastko showed himself serious and ascetic; as the youngest son, he was made Prince of Hum at an early age, in. Hum was a province between Neretva and Dubrovnik. Having his own court with magnates, senior officials and selected local nobility, the governance in Hum was not only an honorary title but constituted a practical school of state administration. Teodosije the Hilandarian said that Rastko, as a ruler, was "mild and gentle, kind to everyone, loving the poor as few others, and very respecting of the monastic life". He showed no interest in fame, wealth, or the throne.
The governance of Hum had previously been held by his uncle Miroslav, who continued to hold at least the Lim region with Bijelo Polje while Rastko held Hum. After two years, in autumn 1192 or shortly afterwards, Rastko left Hum for Mount Athos. Miroslav may have continued as ruler of Hum after Rastko had left. Athonite monks were frequent visitors to the Serbian court – lectures perhaps made him determined to leave.
Mount Athos
Upon arriving at Athos, Rastko entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery where he received the monastic name of Sava. According to tradition, a Russian monk was his spiritual guide or mentor and was said to have had earlier visited the Serbian court with other Athonite monks. Sava then entered the Greek Vatopedi monastery, where he would stay for the next seven years, and became more closely acquainted with Greek theological and church-administrational literature. His father tried to persuade him to return to Serbia, but Sava was determined and replied, "You have accomplished all that a Christian sovereign should do; come now and join me in the true Christian life". His young years at Athos had a significant influence on the formation of his personality, it was also here that he found models on which he would organize monastic and church life in Serbia.Stefan Nemanja took his son's advice – he summoned an assembly at Studenica and abdicated on 25 March 1196, giving the throne to his middle son, Stefan. The next day, Nemanja and his wife Ana took monastic vows. Nemanja took the monastic name Simeon and stayed in Studenica until leaving for Mount Athos in autumn 1197. The arrival was greatly pleasing to Sava and the Athonite community, as Nemanja as a ruler had donated much to the community. The two, with consent of the hegumen Theostyriktos of Vatopedi, went on a tour of Athos in late autumn 1197 in order for Simeon to familiarize with all of its churches and sacred places; Nemanja and Ana donated to numerous monasteries, especially Karyes, Iviron and the Great Lavra.
When Sava visited the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos at Constantinople, he mentioned the neglected and abandoned Hilandar, and asked the Emperor to grant him and his father permission to restore the monastery and transfer it to Vatopedi. The Emperor approved, and sent a special letter and considerable gold to his friend Stefan Nemanja. Sava then addressed the protos of Athos, asking them to support the effort so the monastery of Hilandar might become a haven for Serb monks.
All Athonite monasteries, except Vatopedi, accepted the proposal. In July 1198, Emperor Alexios III issued a charter which revoked the earlier decision, and instead not only granted Hilandar, but also the other abandoned monasteries in Mileis, to Simeon and Sava, to be a haven and shelter for Serb monks in Athos. The restoration of Hilandar quickly began and Grand Prince Stefan sent money and other necessities, and issued the founding charter for Hilandar in 1199.
Sava wrote a typikon for Hilandar, modeled on the typikon of the monastery of Theotokos Euergetis in Constantinople. Besides Hilandar, Sava was the ktetor of the hermitage at Karyes for the monks who devoted themselves to solitude and prayer. In 1199, he authored the typikon of Karyes. Along with the hermitage, he built the chapel dedicated to Sabbas the Sanctified, whose name he received upon monastic vows. His father died on 13 February 1199. In 1204, after 13 April, Sava received the rank of archimandrite.
As Nemanja had earlier decided to give the rule to Stefan, and not the eldest son, Vukan, the latter began plotting against Stefan in the meantime. He found an ally in Hungarian king Emeric with whom he banished Stefan to Bulgaria, and Vukan seized the Serbian throne. Stefan returned to Serbia with an army in 1204 and pushed Vukan to Zeta, his hereditary land. After problems at Athos with Latin bishops and Boniface of Montferrat following the Fourth Crusade, Sava returned to Serbia in the winter of 1205–1206 or 1206–1207, with the remains of his father which he relocated to his father's endowment, the Studenica monastery, and then reconciled his quarreling brothers. Sava saved the country from further political crisis by ending the dynastic fight, and also completed the canonization process of Nemanja as a saint.
Enlightenment
Having spent 14 years in Mount Athos, Sava had extensive theological knowledge and spiritual power. According to Sava's biography, he was asked to teach the court and people of Serbia the Christian laws and traditions and "in that way enwisen and educate". Sava then worked on the religious and cultural enlightenment of the Serbian people, educating in Christian morality, love and mercy, meanwhile also working on the church organization. Since his return in 1206, he became the hegumen of Studenica, and as its elder, self-willed entered regulations on the independent status of that monastery in the Studenica Typikon. He used the general chaos in which the Byzantine Empire found itself after the siege of Constantinople into the hands of the Crusaders, and the strained relations between the Despotate of Epirus and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Nicaea, into his advantage. The Studenica Typikon became a sort of lex specialis, which allowed Studenica to have independent status in relation to the Bishopric of Raška and Archbishopric of Ohrid. The canonization of Nemanja and the Studenica Typikon would be the first steps towards the future autocephaly of the Serbian Church and elevation of the Serbian ruler to king ten years later.In 1217, archimandrite Sava left Studenica and returned to Mount Athos. His departure has been interpreted by a part of the historians as a reaction to his brother Stefan accepting the royal crown from Rome. Stefan had just prior to this made a large switch in politics, marrying a Venetian noblewoman, and subsequently asked the Pope for a royal crown and political support. With the establishment of the Latin Empire, Rome had considerably increased its power in the Balkans. Stefan was crowned by a papal legate, becoming equal to the other kings, and was called "the First-Crowned King" of Serbia.
Stefan's politics that led to the events of 1217 were somewhat in odds with the Serbian Orthodox tradition, represented by his brother, archimandrite Sava, who favored Eastern Orthodoxy and Byzantine ecclesiastical culture in Serbia. Though Sava left Serbia while talks were underway between Stefan and Rome, he and his brother resumed their good relation after receiving the crown. It is possible that Sava did not agree with everything in his brother's international politics, however, his departure for Athos may also be interpreted as a preparation for obtaining the autocephaly of the Serbian Archbishopric. His departure was planned, both Domentijan and Teodosije, Sava's biographers, stated that before leaving Studenica he appointed a new hegumen and "put the monastery in good, correct order, and enacted the new church constitution and monastic life order, to be held that way", after which he left Serbia.
File:Saint Sava Mileseva Monastery.png|left|thumb|555x555px|Fresco in Mileševa Monastery