Sava Hilandarac

Sava Hilandarac ( Czech Sáva Chilandarec , secular name Slavibor Breuer, Czech: Slavibor Breüer ), (born July 8, 1837 in Kutná Hora ; † January 14, 1912 in Hilandar ) was a Czech Orthodox monk who lived in Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece lived.

Life

Slavibor Jonathan Jeremiah Christopher Breuer was born into a wealthy entrepreneurial family in the Bohemian town of Kutná Hora . He was raised Roman Catholic and enjoyed an education in three languages ​​( Czech , German and Latin ). In his youth he devoted himself to the organization of the town archives and the town library of Kutná Hora, but did not stay long in his hometown. After crossing Bohemia and Moravia , he went on through Europe. In 1878 he and his three adopted sons came to Leskovac in Serbia . A serious illness forced him to rethink his lifestyle. In Leskovac he made the acquaintance of practically all prominent people in the city, learned the Serbian language and familiarized himself with Serbian literature. There he found out about the Hilandar monastery for the first time in his life. After reading some books and hearing several stories about the Holy Mountain in Greece, he decides to go and stay there. But in order to live in an Orthodox monastery, he had to change his denomination. Thanks to his friendship with an archimandrite from Niš , Vasilije, he came to Orthodox Christianity in 1881 and then went to Hilandar with his three sons in the same year.

Sava in Hilandar Monastery

In Hilandar, however, he was first disappointed. At that time, most of the monks in Hilandar were Bulgarian and therefore hesitant to accept people from Serbia into the monastery. But Slavibor persisted. Despite a multitude of humiliations and insults, he received the status of a monk and the monk name Sava after more than a year as a novice . After many years of other activities, he was appointed librarian of the monastery in 1894.

The library was probably in an indescribably poor condition. Sava bought instruments for bookbinding and pursued this profession, which he once learned in the Czech Republic, cataloging the entire book inventory. After this laborious work, he only got permission to organize the monastery archives again after an even greater effort. When the Serbian King Aleksandar Obrenović visited Hilandar in 1896, he was impressed by the library. After only two years, Sava had turned it into one of the tidiest libraries on Athos. On this occasion, King Aleksandar awarded him the Order of St. Sava . This only motivated the monk Sava to improve the condition of the monastery books, which were one of the Serbs' greatest cultural treasures. Sava invested a lot of time and effort in compiling a catalog of all the Cyrillic manuscripts of the Hilandar monastery. He did this very well, because he worked in the library and archive of the monastery for almost two decades. This was the first cataloging of all manuscripts, all ancient books and all treasures in the archives of Hilandar Monastery.

Sava's manuscripts

The "Small Catalog" created by Sava was published in Prague in 1897 . Ten years later he offered a significantly expanded catalog of the Serbian Royal Academy, which was not published for unknown reasons. It was not until 1997, after a renewed interest in the Bohemian-Serbian monk, that the National Library of Serbia (in which Sava's catalog is located today) published his work entitled "The history of Hilandar Monastery: a reminder of the 700th anniversary of its founding" . From the beginning to the end of the 19th century, Sava describes in his story all the most important events and personalities that had to do with the Hilandar Monastery. With this publication, the National Library of Serbia , and through it the Serbian people, thanked the man who devoted almost his entire life to the preservation and popularization of the Serbian cultural heritage.

Slavibor Breüer, or the monk Sava Hilandarac, died in Hilandar Monastery on January 14, 1912.

literature

• Nenad Karamijalković: Sava Hilandarac, češki čuvar srpskog kulturnog blaga
• Vladimír Kristen: Vztah mnicha Savy Chilandarského k etnickým procesům na Balkáně. Český lid 77, Praha 1990, č. 2, p. 69-77.
• Marcel Černý: Recepce literárního díla českého mnicha na Chilandaru otce Sávy a nový zájem o jeho osobnost v Srbsku, Slavia 69, Praha 2000, s. 289-311.
• Marcel Černý: Athos českýma očima v moderní době, in: Slavistika a balkanistika, Ivan Dorovský, Litteraria humanitas X, Brno 2001, s. 19-47.
• Marcel Černý: Dlaczego J. Zeyer never odszedł na Górę Athos? (O spotkaniu J. Zeyera z Sawą Chilandarskim), in: Klasztory i kultura krajów słowiańskich, Biblioteka ekumenii i dialogu, tom 15, Kraków 2001, p. 175-207.
• Marcel Černý: K vydávání archivní pozůstalosti Sávy Chilandarce. (Několik poznámek ke Knize:.. Сава Хиландарац, Типикарница светог Саве у Кареји Приредио Т. Јовановић, предговор Б. Радовановић, са немачког превела Ј Вељановски, Serbian Literary Company, Toronto 2000, 145 стр.), Slavia 74, Praha 2005 s. 39-64.
• Marcel Cerny: Slavibor Breüer alias Sáva Chilandarec (1837-1912) v dokumentačních materiálech z českých archivu (s bibliografickým soupisem jeho prací a pozůstalostí) Прилози за књижевност, језик, историју и фолклор 70/2004, свеска 1-4, Београд 2005 с. 365-398.
• Marcel Černý: Středoevropan Sáva Chilandarec (1837-1912) a mnišská republika Athos. Jubilejní črta ke století od úmrtí českého pravoslavného mnicha, Parrésia 6, Praha 2012, s. 321-348.
• Марцел Черни: Архимандрит Онуфрий Попович Хилендарец (Богдан Попиванов) в светлината на преписката му (За една забравена редакция от чешкия монах Сава Хиландарец). Исторически преглед 68, София 2012, № 3–4, с. 132-164.
• Marcel Černý: Athonská korespondence Sávy Chilandarce (1837–1912) s chemikem Josefem Zdeňkem Raušarem (1862–1947) + Josef Zdeněk Raušar: Dopisy otce Sávy Chilandarce, mnicha srbskémskrov (mnicha srbskémskrov) (mnicha srbskémskrov (18–94) polohgeostjéměštera Chilandarem) Chilandarem (1862–1947) 1911, Parrésia 8, Prague 2014, p. 111-132, 133-228.