Life
Saint Sava, in the world Rastko Nemanjić, was born in 1175 as the youngest son of the Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja, founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, and his wife Ana. From his earliest years he was distinguished by intelligence, gentleness, and a pronounced piety. His parents prepared him early for a ruler’s duties, giving him governance of Hum (present-day Herzegovina), yet his heart yearned for the monastic life.
At seventeen (1192) he secretly left the court and departed with Russian monks for the Holy Mountain of Athos. He first received the monastic tonsure at the Russian Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, where he was given the name Sava, and then transferred to the Greek monastery of Vatopedi. His father, Stefan Nemanja, moved by his son’s example, surrendered the throne to his middle son Stefan, himself took monastic vows under the name Simeon, and joined his son on the Holy Mountain. In 1198, with the blessing of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III, father and son restored the ruined monastery of Hilandar, which became the spiritual hearth of the Serbian people.
After the repose of Saint Simeon (1199) and years of deeper formation, Sava returned to Serbia around 1208 — at the moment when his brothers Stefan and Vukan had fallen into bitter political strife. Through his wisdom and prayer he reconciled the brothers, brought from Hilandar the relics of his father Simeon to the monastery of Studenica, and laid the foundation of Serbian national unity around the Church.
His greatest achievement was the establishment of the independent — autocephalous — Serbian Archbishopric. In 1219, in Nicaea, he obtained from the Ecumenical Patriarch Manuel I and Emperor Theodore Laskaris the grant of autocephaly, and was himself ordained the first Serbian Archbishop. On his return he organized the church hierarchy, founded eight new dioceses, compiled the first Serbian legal code — the Krmčija (Nomocanon) — and wrote the Hilandar Typikon and the Life of his father, laying the foundations of Serbian letters and law.
He undertook two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, met with the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, and renewed Serbian foundations in the East. He reposed on January 14, 1235, in Tărnovo, Bulgaria, while returning from his second pilgrimage. His relics were translated to the monastery of Mileševa, where they rested until the conqueror Sinan Pasha burned them on the Vračar hill in Belgrade in 1594 — the very site where the magnificent Cathedral of Saint Sava now stands, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
Tropar (Tone 8)
Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and purity, intercessor and suppliant of the Serbian people, adornment of monastics, herald of the Holy Gospel, first founder of our Church, glorifier of God — our father Sava, intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 8)
As a great hierarch and sharer in the work of the apostles, the Serbian Church glorifies and magnifies thee, Sava: be our intercessor before Christ God, that He may deliver us from every affliction and danger, and preserve thy people in the unity of faith and love.
About the Feast
Savindan is celebrated on January 27 by the New (Gregorian) calendar, corresponding to January 14 by the Old (Julian) calendar. Since 1840 Saint Sava has been proclaimed the patron of Serbian schools, and on this day all schools in Serbia and in the Serbian diaspora mark it as the school’s patron feast.
Traditional observances include a morning Liturgy in school or parish churches, the cutting of the slava bread (often done by the priest together with the school director or eldest pupil), the recitation of the hymn “Let Us Cry Out with Love,” and student programs of spiritual and patriotic character. In families who keep Savindan as their patron feast, a meatless slava table is prepared — though the feast falls outside the major fasts, it often lands within minor fasting periods — with the obligatory slava bread, koljivo (wheat memorial dish), red wine, and various Lenten dishes.
In the national consciousness Saint Sava has grown beyond his purely ecclesiastical role and become a symbol of Serbian education, culture, and national identity. Countless legends are attached to him — from tales of how he taught the people to plough and keep bees, to stories of how he “baked bread” for the poor and blessed springs. The slava table on Savindan is therefore prepared with special solemnity, for what is celebrated is not only the saint but the very distinctiveness of the Serbian spiritual tradition.