Information Service of ON ST. SAVA'S FEAST, PATRIARCH PAVLE
SERVES THE HOLY LITURGY On Sunday, the feast of Saint Sava, His Holiness Pavle - Serbian Patriarch, is serving the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the St. John the Theologian's Chapel at the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic is going to attend the service. After the Liturgy, there will be a festive ceremony dedicated to Saint Sava. Patriarch Pavle will afterwards visit great number of public institutions and schools which celebrate Saint Sava's feast. The St. Sava's feast will be marked by the Holy Liturgy and numerous performances dedicated to this feast in all the churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church. His Grace Atanasije (Rakita), Bishop of Hvosno and Auxiliary Bishop of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle, is going to serve the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the Memorial Church at Vracar, the church dedicated to Saint Sava, the First Serbian Archbishop and Enlightener. After the Liturgy, a festive performance is to be held. The first Serbian enlightener is celebrated as the patron of pupils and education, a school slava. Judging by numerous stories relating to Saint Sava, it is obvious that he has been one of the most popular and loved persons among the Serbs. Saint Sava was born around 1175 as Rastko Nemanjic, the third and the youngest son of Stefan Nemanja (who governed the then tribal state as the Great Zupan) and Ana. He was very widely educated "on the basis of Old-Slavic and Byzantine literatures". Being inclined to spiritual life, he went to Mount Athos. First to the Russian Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, and then to the Greek Monastery of Vatopedi, where he took monastic vows and changed his name to Sava, after Venerable Sabbas the Sanctified of Jerusalem. Together with his father, who joined him at the Mount Athos as monastic Symeon, he founded the Monastery of Chilandar, the fourth one in the hierarchy of the monasteries at the Mount Athos and one of the most significant spiritual and cultural seats of the Serbian people. Apart from being the founder of monasteries and churches, he is considered to be the first Serbian medieval writer "who with the Serbian literature actually started", and for almost 30 years he participated in the running of the Serbian internal and external policy. Saint Sava reconciled his elder brothers Vukan and Stefan, who were quarreling over inheritance of the throne. He successfully terminated talks with Byzantine Emperor and Ecumenical Patriarch in Nicaea on the autocephaly of the Serbian Church. He crowned and advised three kings - Stefan the First-Crowned, Radoslav and Vladislav, and in their names he talked with foreign rulers and church heads. The history names him a great prelate of the Church and a great statesman. He died on January 13 (Julian calendar), 1236 in Trnovo where he was buried in the Church of Forty Martyrs. King Vladislav translated his relics to the Monastery of Mileseva. Sinan-Pasha ordered that his relics be translated to Belgrade and incinerated at Vracar on April 27 (old calendar) 1595. The Church decided that Saint Sava met all the conditions to be revered as saint: he lived a holy life, made miracles both during his life and after death, and after death his body remained intact. His biography was composed right after he had died (Domentian and Theodosius) and church services when he started to be celebrated as a saint. January 13 was the date of his death, but the Serbian Orthodox Church moved his feast, wanting that a separate service be dedicated to Saint Sava, and adopted January 14/27 as the feast of this Saint. The other Orthodox Churches celebrate the memory of this Saint two days earlier, on January 12/25. |
