Patron Saint's Day of St. Sava Cathedral on Vrachar

His Holiness IRINEJ, Serbian Patriarch with the bishops of our Holy Church will serve the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy on a day of burning the relics of St. Sava, May 10, 2010 with the beginning at 9am, in the memorial cathedral of the Serbian people to its first Archbishop on Vracar in Belgrade. On the Eve of the feast day, on May 9, at 5pm, at a small Vracar church of St. Sava a feast day's vigil service.

Burning the relics of Saint Sava

Each year, on May 10, the Serbian Orthodox Church prayerfully remembers and marks the day of burning the relics of Saint Sava of Serbia. In 1594 on the Belgrade hill of Vrachar, a Turkish military leader severely punished the Serbs. That year the Banat Serbs raised rebellion against the Turkish rule. The face of the Serbian giant was  carried on flags.

As a punishment for this rebellion bloodily suppressed, Sinan-Pasha ordered the relics of the greatest Serbian Saint to be brought from the monastery Milesheva, where there had been over 350 years, and to be burnt. The plan was to destroy the cult of this great Saint among the people, and with it all the hopes of liberation from the Ottoman Turks. The relics of St. Sava were, according to historians, "a source of the Serbian state legitimacy" and "a symbol of Serbian traditions on state and independence" As  contemporaries recorded, this criminal act was followed by very bad weather, a hail and a thunderstorm. The ash of the Serbian enlightener was scattered in all directions.