Sava of Serbia

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Depiction of Sava in the Mileševa monastery (detail)

Sava ( Serbian - Cyrillic Сава , German  Sabas ; * around 1174 as Rastko ( Nemanjić ) probably in Ribnica (today Podgorica ), Zeta ; † probably January 14, 1236 in Tarnowo , Bulgarian Empire ) was Serbian archbishop from 1219 to 1233 and is a Saint of the Serbian Orthodox Church ( apostle equals ) and the Roman Catholic Church .

Sava was the youngest son of the Serbian grand župan Stefan Nemanja and the brother of the first king of the Nemanjić dynasty Stefan . The establishment of the Serbian archbishopric and the turn to the Byzantine Eastern Church go back to Sava . By a personal edict of Emperor Alexios III. In Constantinople Sava was awarded the foundation of the Athos monastery Hilandar in 1197, which was supposed to secure a permanent place within the Orthodoxy for the Serbian Church.

Sava's pilgrimages to the holy places in Palestine in 1229 and again in 1234 played a decisive role in the further theological development in the Serbian Orthodox Church, the instruction of its clergy and the spiritual devotion of the Serbian nobility to Byzantine Christian theology .

Sava is the central figure in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church, among the Serbs he was preserved in legends , epics and songs .

Life

Almost the only sources on Sava's life are the contemporary hagiographies of the Hilandar monk Domentijan (1210 – after 1264) and the Athos monk Teodosije.

origin

Sava was born around 1174 as the youngest son of the Serbian grandzupan Stefan Nemanja and his wife Ana and was given the name Rastko . At the age of 15, Rastko became Župan from Zahumlje .

Monasticism

Sava as a saint, Mileševa monastery (13th century)

The 16-year-old Rastko is said to have fled to the monastery of Athos . On his escape, Rastko is said to have been assisted by two Russian monks who were traveling through Zahumlje. He entered the monastery of Aghios Panteleimon as a monk and took the name "Sava" after the monk and founder of the monastery Sabas .

As an Orthodox Athos monk, Sava spent seven years in the then most important Athos monastery, Vatopedi , where he was elected abbot despite his youth. He then spent two years in Hilandar Monastery, before spending some time in the Monastery of Theotokos Evergetis in Constantinople from 1199.

In 1196 Stefan Nemanja renounced the prince throne and followed his son Sava as a monk on Mount Athos. By 1200, Sava had become a dominant figure on Holy Mount Athos; between 1200 and 1204 he was appointed Archimandrite in Thessaloniki , making him the second highest in the hierarchy of Athos after the Protos . Stefan Nemanja died in 1200 as a monk Simeon on Mount Athos.

On the Serbian princely throne, Stefan Nemanja appointed his second son Stefan as Großžupan, who became Serbian king from 1217 . Nemanja's firstborn Vukan , who should have succeeded his father, was Župan of Zeta . It was not common in early Serbia for a second son to succeed him, and after Stefan Nemanja passed away, Vukan, with the support of many Serbian tribal elders, rebelled against his brother Stefan.

Vukan was also supported by the Kingdom of Hungary and the Roman Church , while Stefan showed more sympathy for the Eastern Church. Stefan was expelled, but came back to the throne with Bulgarian help. Since Stefan Nemanja had supported the Bulgarian uprising against Byzantium at the time , there was a deep friendship between Serbia and Bulgaria. The Bulgarians belonged to the Eastern Church and were hostile to Hungarians at the same time, so it was quite natural for them to give Stefan help. Vukan had to leave his father's inheritance behind in Montenegro, but started another uprising.

After 1206 Sava returned to Serbia as abbot of the Studenica monastery and took the bones of his father with him, for which he chose Studenica as the grave site. Studenica thus became the most important spiritual center in Serbia and a model for later founding of monasteries.

Sava actually managed to bring peace to Serbia, which was bled to death by fratricidal wars. For the next few years, Sava stayed in Serbia and helped overcome the wounds of the civil war. These years are considered to be the most important in his work. 1216/17 returned to Athos Sava and became in 1219 Nicaea to Archbishop appointed Serbia. This established the autocephaly of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which he outsourced from the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Archdiocese in Ohrid with the establishment of the Serbian Archbishopric in the Žiča Monastery .

The Roman Church began to consolidate its position in Serbia, which is why Orthodox Serbs came to Athos and communicated this to Sava and the other monks. After a consultation, the Athos monks, who were concerned about this, commissioned Sava to ask the ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Church for an independent church organization for Serbia. A delegation of Athos monks, including Sava, traveled to Nicaea in 1219 , where the then ecumenical patriarch Manuel I emigrated after the conquest of Constantinople. Manuel agreed to the plan of the Athos monks to create their own church organization for Serbia. The Athos monks immediately elected Sava as archbishop for Serbia and the coastal countries, whom Patriarch Manuel then consecrated.

In 1220 the Sava returned for the second time to Serbia, this time as Archbishop of Serbia, accompanied by the Athos monks. Even King Stefan could not oppose this, or he did not want to. At Pentecost 1221 a people's assembly was called and Sava was confirmed as archbishop. Sava then crowned his brother king a second time, this time according to the Orthodox rite.

This brought the Serbian Orthodox Church into being. Basically, the Serbian Orthodox Church emerged on Mount Athos, under the Athos monks, which is why Orthodox Serbs are still very closely associated with the monastic republic.

Pilgrimages

Pilgrimages to Savas 1229–1236

As far as we know today, Sava made two trips to Palestine to the holy places in 1229/30 and 1234/35. The monks Domentijan and Teodosius reported on this in detail. He had certainly received the suggestion for the Palestine trips during his stay from 1191 on the holy Mount Athos from local Jerusalem pilgrims (including the Protos Dometios with the nickname 'Jerusalemer' mentioned by Teodosius), but undertook this in particular to safeguard the autocephaly of his regional church (since 1217) by the Eastern Patriarchs.

Sava had a lively relationship with the holy land through his monastic namesake, the Palestinian monk father Sabas. In his Sava biography, Domentijan describes Sava's travels to Palestine in the greatest detail, which often leads to the assumption that he accompanied him. Sava began his pilgrimage at the place of death and resurrection of Jesus, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. After the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Athanasius II had welcomed him, the path led him on his second journey to the birthplace of Christ Bethlehem with the same gifts as the Three Magi. Then he visited the hall on Mount Sion. Domentijan describes how Sava celebrates a liturgy at all pilgrimage sites, the Church of the Assumption with the footprints of Jesus and the houses of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist and St. Joachim and Anna, Maria's parents, visited. Sava then visited the temple grounds as well as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemani. Further stations were the Jericho desert (place of the temptation of Jesus) and the Jordan (place of the baptism of Jesus) as well as a longer stay in the monastery foundation of his monastic namesake of the Lavra Mar-Saba near Bethlehem. After visiting the Georgian and Russian monasteries, he founded a Serbian (Church of St. John the Theologian). At the end he traveled to Mount Tabor and Nazareth.

In addition to Athanasius II, Sava also met the Byzantine emperors in Nikaia and Thessaloniki. During his second trip to the Orient, he personally asked the Sultan of Egypt al-Kamil for permission to visit St. Catherine's Monastery .

After the second pilgrimage to the holy places and the Lord's tomb in Jerusalem , Sava visited the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Assen II at his court in Tarnowo (today Veliko Tarnowo ). He helped the Orthodox Bulgarians renew their patriarchy .

death

On the way back, Sava fell ill and died shortly after on January 14th (or January 12th or 13th) 1236 in Tarnowo. He was buried in the local tsar's church “Holy Forty Martyrs”. Sava's successor as Archbishop of Serbia, Arsenije von Syrmien , together with the Serbian King Vladislav Savas, transferred mortal remains as relics from Bulgaria to Serbia, despite initial resistance from the Bulgarian emperors, and buried them in the Mileševa monastery .

Works

First page of the Sava nomocanon, manuscript from 1262

Sava's most important foundations were the Athos Monastery Hilandar (together with his father Stefan Nemanja), the Monastery Žiča in Serbia (until 1253 seat of the Orthodox Archbishop), the Archangel Monastery near Jerusalem (no longer existing today) and a hospital for Orthodox pilgrims in Acre (also defunct).

Sava wrote the vitae for his late father. The Typikon Evergetis took over Sava in Church Slavonic translation of the constitution Hilandars and easily adapted form for the monastery Studenica . It thus became the model of many medieval monastic typica throughout Serbia.

He is considered to be the author of the Nomokanon , the first Serbian code of law from 1217. This codification of Byzantine law formed the foundation of Serbian ecclesiastical and civil legislation. The nomocanon was called Krmčija or Kormčaja Kniga (Book of the Pilot) by the Slavs and became the basic constitution of the Bulgarian and Russian Churches.

Adoration

Shortly after Sava's death, two contemporary vitae were written, one by the monk and historiographer Domentijan (1210 − after 1264) about 10 or no later than 19 years after Sava's death and, in the later 13th century, the vita by the Athos monk Teodosije. A few years after his death, Sava was declared a saint, and his cult quickly spread through the monasteries Hilandar, Studenica, Žiča and Mileševa, which are connected with Savas.

As a punitive measure for the Serbian uprising of 1593, the Ottomans under Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha burned Sava's remains on April 27, 1594 on a hill near Belgrade , presumably today's Vračar Mountain . A smaller church dedicated to St. Sava was built on the Vračar. In 1935, construction began on the St. Sava Cathedral . After a decade-long construction freeze, the cathedral was inaugurated in 2004.

Saint Sava was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century . In the following centuries and in the nationality conflict that also influenced the churches, this canonization of the Roman Catholic Church fell into oblivion and is currently unknown to many Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.

Sava's feast day is January 14th, which, according to Julian calendar calculations , falls on January 27th of the Gregorian calendar .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Saint Sava  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stanislaus Hafner 1962: Serbian Middle Ages - Old Serbian rulers' biographies. Volume 1: Stefan Nemanja after the Vites of St. Sava and Stefans the First Crowned translated, introduced and explained by Stanislaus Hafner . Slavic historians, Vol. II, Styria, Graz.
  2. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: Six Byzantine Portraits . Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 128. ISBN 0-19-821951-2
  3. ↑ Gerhard Podhalsky: Theological literature of the Middle Ages in Bulgaria and Serbia - 865-1459 . G. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45024-5 , p. 517 ff.
  4. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: pp. 171-172
  5. ↑ Fighters 1981 (literature).
  6. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 134
  7. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: pp. 158-161
  8. ↑ Gerhard Podhalsky: Theological literature of the Middle Ages in Bulgaria and Serbia - 865-1459 . G. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45024-5 , p. 517 ff.
  9. ↑ Gerhard Podhalsky: Theological literature of the Middle Ages in Bulgaria and Serbia - 865-1459 . G. Beck, Munich 2000, p. 517.
  10. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 165
  11. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 168
  12. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: pp. 132-133
  13. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 155
  14. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 123
  15. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky 1988: p. 171
  16. ↑ Ekkehard Kraft: Sava. In: Religion Past and Present . Volume 7, 4th edition. Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-16-149634-5 , Sp. 853.
personal data
SURNAME Sava of Serbia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saint Sava of Serbia (full name); Sawa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first Orthodox Archbishop of Serbia
DATE OF BIRTH around 1174
PLACE OF BIRTH Ribnica (now Podgorica )
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1236
Place of death Veliko Tarnovo