Profile
Sava was a prince of Serbia, the son of King Stephen I Nemanya. He took the name Sava (Sabas) when he became a monk at Mount Athos. His father later surrendered his crown and became a monk, too, and together they founded the monastery at Chilanari as a house for Serbs. Sava returned home in 1207 when a quarrel between his brothers, Stephen II and Vulkan, broke into civil war. Sava brought monks with him, founded several monasteries, and began the reformation and education of his country, where religion and education had fallen to a low estate. Sava became a metropolitan of a new Serbian hierarchy by Emperor Theodore II Laskaris at Nicaea, and was reluctantly consecrated by Patriarch Manuel I in 1219. He crowned his brother Stephen II as King of Serbia in 1222. He finished uniting his people that had begun by his father. He translated religious works into Serbian, and gave his people a native clergy and hierarchy. He was dispatched to the Holy Land on an ecclesiastical mission. Sava died on the way home.
Born
- 1176 as Rastko Nemanjic
Died
- 14 January 1235 at Tirnovo, Bulgaria of natural causes
Patronage
- Serbia
- Serbs
Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-sava-14-january/
