SAINT SAVA

Saint Sava, the spiritual father of the Serbian Orthodox people and the founder of the independence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, is called by Serbian poet “the most beautiful Serbian child.” He became a monk on Mount Athos, renouncing power and the crown. He was a patron, legislator, preacher, statesman, the first Serbian writer, and the first Serbian Archbishop. He visited the Holy Land twice and brought back numerous relics, among which the famous Trojeročica (Three-handed Icon of the Virgin) became a symbol of the Serbian monastic community of Hilandar on Mount Athos. Today, the magnificent Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade stands on the site where his relics were burned, as one of the most beautiful adornments of universal Orthodoxy.