Written by: Catechist Branislav Ilić
One of the greatest teachers and Fathers of the Church from the era when it was still united and undivided, Blessed Augustine, expressing his experience of Universal Christianity, wrote: “Language is insufficient to speak of God. Yet man desires to express his wonder and enthusiasm. Thus, he has no choice but to sing.“
Saint Sava’s biographer, Domentijan, describes our enlightener as “a nightingale of divine song, ever wakeful, whose ceaseless sacred hymns rouse those who slumber in sin.” The preserved works of Saint Sava, largely poetic in nature, affirm the truth that he multiplied and enriched every talent given to him by God, returning them to the Church and his people for their salvation.
In the 50s of the first century after Christ, Saint Paul wrote to his beloved church in Corinth:
“For though you have countless teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. I urge you, therefore, to be imitators of me” (1 Cor 4:15-16).
Although the Serbian Church has had and continues to have thousands of teachers in Christ who have built and shaped it into a light for the world down the centuries, it has only one father who begot it in Christ Jesus through the Gospel – Saint Sava, equal to the Apostles. Just as the Corinthians were called to follow their father, the Apostle Paul, so too are the faithful of the Serbian Church called to follow their father, Saint Sava, who has, for centuries, invited them:
“Come, my children, and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
The joy is great, and the Lord’s blessing immeasurable, for Saint Sava was born into our nation 850 years ago and enriched it abundantly with his works. Christ once told His disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His field, for “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Matt. 9:37-38). In the person of Saint Sava, the Serbian people received the greatest labourer for their vineyard. Sava Nemanjic-Serbian prince – Hilandar monk, Athonite ascetic, and saint – was a prince of the earthly realm, but a teacher of the heavenly wisdom.
For over eight centuries, the Serbain people have tirelessly and gratefully preserved their personal experience of prayerful communion with Saint Sava through hymns and hagiographical and hymnographic texts dedicated to him. Yet, this timeless figure compels us to continue writing and speaking of him even today. Can a person of our time, given such a vast historical distance, adequately respond to the challenge of composing new hymns or sermons in honour of our archpastor of all archpastors, adding yet another word of praise for the saint and for the Lord Jesus Christ, who made him holy?
How difficult this is, warns Hilandar monk and Sava’s biographer, Teodosije, who prays in biblical and poetic fashion:
„With what sacred hymns shall we praise Sava, the holy one, who revealed to us the tablets of the New Covenant of the Gospel, through whom we came to know the true faith of Orthodoxy, and who made us a Christ-bearing people?“
Svetosavlje – the legacy of Saint Sava – is the science of light that dispels darkness, the science of love, patience, and every virtue. It is nothing less than the teaching of Christ, made accessible to the Serbian soul. By leaving us this spiritual inheritance, Saint Sava bequeathed an immortal conscience to the Serbian people. Thus, it is our duty to continually examine ourselves – are we advancing in this sacred learning, do we remember it, or have we forgotten?
The unlearned are easily deceived. Let us not allow ourselves to remain ignorant, let us not forget what we have learned. We may learn from others, but we must not forget Svetosavlje, for it is full of optimism, full of living speech that all can understand. Svetosavlje is experiental and alive, a theology infused with Christ and permeated with love for God and our neighbours. At the foundation of Svetosavlje stands Christ, the Teacher above all teachers, the Holy One of Holies, who crowned Saint Sava with the wreath of sainthood, demonstrating that holiness is a calling given to every member of the Church.
Saint Sava determined who we are and to whom we belong, for he brought us to Christ. He gathered us and set the path we must follow-the path of Christ, the way of the Gospel. He instilled in the Serbian people values that endure: divine truth, divine justice, divine love, and divine mercy. On the foundation of sincere faith in Christ, Saint Sava established the pillars of the Serbian state, translated the Nomocanon into Zakonopravilo (which is, in effect, the first Serbian constitution), secured the autocephaly of our Church, built endowments, founded schools and hospitals, and shaped the identity of our people once and for all.
The ethos of Saint Sava calls us not to be exclusive, self-centred, or self-sufficient, but to remain open to the uncertainties of this world, to be discerning, multi-faceted, wise in our judgments, measuring all things by divine, rather than human, standards. Saint Sava said:
„My beloved children, we who have received from the Lord the gift of immoral faith, the great treasure of eternal life, must always labour to perform immortal works of Christ.“
This, as an invaluable legacy, our Holy Father Sava left to us at the Great Church and National Assembly in Žiča, knowing that heaven and earth shall pass away, but the truth and fulfillment of faith shall endure forever.
