Order of St. Sava
The St. Sava Order , also Saba Order , was awarded as a Serbian Order of Merit in the Kingdom of Serbia or later Kingdom of Yugoslavia as a state award. It was donated on January 23, 1883 by King Milan I of Serbia . Since 1945 it has been the highest honor of the Serbian Orthodox Church .
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According to the new order law of 1883, this new order was created as the only Takovo order at that time. The Takovo Order was changed into a purely military order and the St. Sava Order was now to honor the merits of the arts, science, education and religion.
It is named after the Serbian saint Sava , also Sabbas. He was the youngest brother of the first Serbian king Stephen and also the first Serbian writer. He was revered as the founder of Serbian national education and is said to have founded the Chilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in 1192 , which was considered the root of science and art in the country.
Order classes
The order had five classes.
Order decoration
An enamelled, eight-pointed Maltese cross with a golden border and small balls at the eight points of the cross forms the decoration. The cross is enamelled in white and has a blue border. In each of the cross corners is a golden double-headed eagle . The eagle breast shows the Serbian coat of arms in an oval. For the first three classes, the coat of arms is colored. In the oval medallion there is the colored image of St. Sava on the gold front . In the blue enamelled gold-framed circlet are the Serbian initials in gold "Power is found in one's own home". This comes from an old Serbian church saying.
The reverse shows the intertwined initials of the donor ML in a medallion with a crown above. The circlet shows golden laurel branches in the lapel . The decoration is completed by an openwork golden royal crown above the order cross and attached to the cross arm with a golden ornament.
Only for the fifth grade is everything made of silver . Classification was also based on size.
Ribbon and way of wearing
The ribbon was white and had a wide, light blue stripe on both sides.
The first class wore the medal as a sash over their shoulder. II. And III. Class wore a neck medal and the last two classes decorated the buttonhole. The fourth grade took the ribbon in the form of a rosette.
An additional star was provided for the 1st and 2nd class. This is a brilliant breast star with the medal cross in the middle . The crown was missing and was the same for the second class, only a little smaller.
Known porters
See: List of Bearers of the Order of St. Sava
literature
- Maximilian Gritzner : Handbook of the knight and merit orders of all civilized states in the world. Leipzig 1893, ISBN 3-8262-0705-X .
