The text was published on the Kinonia portal, in the column “From the Editor’s Pen,” on February 1, 2026.
Already in the early Christian era, a Byzantine emperor once said: “The greatness of a people is not measured by the number of its members nor by the extent of its territory; the greatness of a people is measured by how many saints pleasing to God that people has brought forth.” If we were to take this as a criterion, then the Serbian people are indeed a great and blessed nation, for the holy lineage of the Nemanjić dynasty produced great saints and enlighteners and thereby led the Serbian people to God and to the knowledge of God.
For more than eight centuries, the Serbian people have tirelessly and gratefully transmitted their personal experience of communion with Saint Sava into encomiastic texts and other hagiographical and hymnographical writings composed in his honour, in which almost everything about this servant of God has already been said. Yet this figure, ever-present across time, obliges us even today to write and speak about him. At the same time, the question arises as to whether a person of our own century, bearing in mind such a great temporal distance, can worthily and appropriately respond to the challenge of uttering a new word in hymns or homilies about the archpastor of all our archpastors, and of adding yet another line in praise of the saint—and of the Lord Jesus Christ who made him holy.
How difficult this is, on behalf of all of us who dare to speak about Saint Sava, is also indicated by the Hilandar monk and his biographer Theodosius, who sang in biblical and prayerful tones: “By which (and what kind of) spiritual hymns shall we praise the sacred Sava, who clarified for us the tablets of the Gospel of the New Covenant of God, by whom we came to know the true faith of Orthodoxy, who made us people named after Christ?”
Rastko Nemanjić—Sava in monasticism—set out upon the spiritual path of struggle and ascetic endeavor, seeking perfection according to the precepts of Christ’s teaching. As an experienced warrior on the path of the Gospel, Saint Gregory the Theologian says: “Freedom from involvement in many things is the greatest of all works.”
Reflecting on this patristic thought, the young Rastko asks himself: “Whose servant am I, and whose lost son?” And he replies: “I will glory in God at all times, and I will confess Your name forever” (Ps. 43:8), and “O Lord, I have revealed my life to You” (Ps. 55:8). Saint Sava, in a God-pleasing manner, took his heart in both hands and offered it to God as an acceptable sacrifice. And God, from His heavenly dwelling, sent down upon him a blessing and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the troparion of his sacred commemoration, we chant that he is “a teacher of the path that leads to eternal life.” Saint Sava gathered us together and determined the path we are to follow. That path is the path of Christ, the path of the Gospel. He implanted enduring values within the Serbian people—eternal values such as the truth of God, the righteousness of God, the love of God, and the mercy of God. He led us into communion with God’s people, the new Israel, in which the God-given distinctiveness of individual nations is not erased; rather, all nations, as well as every person individually, are recognized by the gifts through which they enrich the common spiritual treasury of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
The work of Saint Sava in enlightening the Serbian people began with his return from Mount Athos to Serbia, that is, with the transfer of the relics of his father, the Venerable Simeon, from the Hilandar Monastery to the Studenica Monastery. From that time onward, Studenica became the center of Serbian ecclesiastical and educational life. His strict monastic life—especially in the Studenica hermitage—his missionary journeys, and his tireless zeal for the faith led the people to behold in him a true enlightener and spiritual beacon. In this spirit, his biographer Domentijan writes:
“For as long as he remained there (in Serbia), he did not cease teaching day and night, establishing all in the fear of God, instructing and demonstrating by his own example models of virtue, choosing the better understanding of God and setting all these things before the children of his fatherland, leading them towards love of God, and driving away the deception of the sickness that destroys the soul, desiring, according to God’s will, to place everything within the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The footsteps of Saint Sava traversed the world and, in a mysterious manner, reached all four corners of the earth. Behold his traces in Australia, where two monasteries are dedicated to him; behold those same traces in America, in Libertyville, where there is likewise a monastery of Saint Sava—not to mention the churches. This wondrous servant of God bears witness to the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Psalmist David, who says: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Ps. 18:5). On whichever continent the foot of a Serb has stepped, there the name and work of our holy father Sava have been known. His warm prayers, which he ceaselessly pours out before the Throne of the heavenly Ruler, Christ, awaken evangelical faith in the hearts of the faithful; the power of his words resounds loudly and, like spiritual leaven, causes every good thought to grow in the mind of our people wherever they may be.
Saint Sava is the people’s teacher and enlightener, counsellor and guiding light of the Serbian spiritual being. He embodies all that is best and most exalted in the Serbian people. Although he lives in every Serbian soul, he is most glorified through the Church and the school. Through the merits of Saint Sava, every school became a temple of learning. By his diligent, devoted, and humble labour, Saint Sava helped the poor, reproved the lazy, shamed the indecent, and condemned liars and perjurers; from this emerged rules of moral conduct that retain their weight to this day.
During the Second World War, from the pen and heart of the Venerable Justin of Ćelije, there emerged the book entitled Saint-Sava-ism as a Philosophy of Life. It was precisely then that the term Svetosavlje (Saint-Sava-ism) appeared for the first time. Svetosavlje has great significance for our people and for our Church; therefore, we can speak of a Saint-Sava-oriented people and a Saint-Sava-oriented Church. The Saint-Sava path led us onto the Orthodox path—that is, the path of Christ.
Our great forebears compared Saint Sava to a pillar appointed by God to shine and glow day and night within the Serbian Church and the Serbian people throughout our entire history. And indeed, Saint Sava has stood for centuries, walking blamelessly, practicing righteousness and speaking truth from his heart (cf. Ps. 12:2), pointing the Serbian people to the paths they are to follow in every favourable and unfavourable circumstance. He is our Moses, our greatest Serbian saint, spiritual and national leader, and the first archpastor of our Church, and thus of our people.
On the day of the sacred commemoration of Saint Sava, liturgical joy and Eucharistic peace are brought into all schools. In the Principality of Serbia, on January 14, 1840, Saint Sava’s Day was proclaimed the school feast day—a celebration of the great Serbian enlightener and patron of education, the father of Serbian statehood, the first Serbian archbishop, and the founder of Serbian diplomacy, literature, legislation, and healthcare. The first celebration of Saint Sava as a school patron was held in 1812 in Zemun, from where it quickly spread to all Serbian lands, while the hymn to Saint Sava was performed for the first time in 1839 in Szeged.
Together with the Church hymnographer, we raise a song of praise to our prayerful patron and teacher of the path that leads to life: “We worthily praise you, O our God-wise father Sava, as a preacher equal to the apostles, and among the saints of the same spirit, fellow ascetics, and a chosen shepherd, a merciful giver of alms; for with the God-flowing river of your teaching you drowned lawless heresies. By the words of your teaching the Serbian Church was adorned, and now rejoices in Orthodoxy; and together with your children we celebrate your holy memory, O father Sava most venerable. You, with the saints of equal glory and with the angels as a leader, pray for our souls.”
Written by: Catechist Branislav Ilić, Editor of the Kinonia Portal
