Saint Sava January 14

He was the youngest son of the great joupan Stefan Nemanja. Modern sources give his various dates of birth: 1169, 1174 or 1175. He may have been born in Stari Ras, then the capital of the first Serbian state, Rascia.

Around 1190, he received from his father the government of the region of Zahumlje, present-day Herzegovina, but he refused the power and left in 1192 for Mount Athos, where he received his monastic name of Sabas; he first joined the "Russian" monastery of Saint Panteleimon, then that of Vatopedi.

There legend tells that he fled the Serbian court during a hunt. He then received an icon of the Three-Handed Mother of God (Bogorodica trojerucica) from Athonite monks.

An ancient prophecy was being fulfilled: it had been announced that this icon, one of the most sacred in the Orthodox Church, was to be given to a monk of royal blood. In 1219, he obtained for Serbia the autonomy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, autocephaly.

In order to understand the knowledge of Orthodox Christianity among the Serbian people, Saint Sava organized the Serbian Church, he also applied the Code of Saint Sava, Krmcija or Nomocanon. He had started writing it on Mount Athos, then in Salonika and finished it in 1220. It is based on Serbian and Byzantine laws and has been adapted to the needs of the Serbian Church. This text consists of civil and ecclesiastical laws.

In order to understand the knowledge of Orthodox Christianity among the Serbian people, Saint Sava organized the Serbian Church, he also applied the Code of Saint Sava, Krmcija or Nomocanon. He had started writing it on Mount Athos, then in Salonika and finished it in 1220. It is based on Serbian and Byzantine laws and has been adapted to the needs of the Serbian Church. This text consists of civil and ecclesiastical laws.