Saint Sava

Saint Sava (Serbian: Свети Сава, Sveti Sava, also Saint Sabbas; 1174 – 14 January 1236) was a Serbian Prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law and literature, and a diplomat. Sava was born Rastko Nemanjić (Растко Немањић, ), the youngest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja (founder of the Nemanjić dynasty), and ruled the appanage of Hum briefly in 1190–1192. He became a monk in his youth, receiving the monastic name Sava (Sabbas), subsequently founding the monasteries of Hilandar on Mount Athos, and Žiča. In 1219 he was recognized as the first Archbishop of Serbs, by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and in the same year he authored the oldest known constitution of Serbia, Zakonopravilo, thus securing full independence; both religious and political. Sava heavily influenced Serbian medieval literature.

He is widely considered as one of the most important figures of Serbian history, and is canonized and venerated by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as its founder, on January 27 . His life and has been interpreted in many artistic works from the Middle Ages to modern times. He is the patron saint of Serbian schools and schoolchildren.

The Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade is dedicated to him, it was built on the scene where the Ottoman Turks burnt his remains in the 16th century, following an uprising in which the Serbs used icon depictions of Sava as their war flags; the cathedral is currently the largest Eastern Christian church building in the world.