Foundation of Hilandar and Athonite Monasticism
Sava's principal achievement on Mount Athos was the establishment of Hilandar Monastery. While visiting Emperor Alexios III Angelos at Constantinople, he drew attention to the neglected and abandoned Hilandar and asked permission to restore it for himself and his father. In July 1198 the emperor issued a charter granting Hilandar, along with other abandoned monasteries in Mileis, to Simeon and Sava.
Grand Prince Stefan sent money and issued the founding charter for Hilandar in 1199. Sava composed the monastery's typikon, or rule, modeled on the Constantinople monastery of the Theotokos Euergetis. He also built an ascetic cell at Kareya in 1199 and authored a typikon for it as well. Hilandar became the lasting center of Serbian Orthodox monastic life.
First Archbishop and Organizer of the Serbian Church
On 15 August 1219, the Feast of the Dormition, Sava was consecrated at Nicaea by the Patriarch of Constantinople as the first archbishop of the newly autocephalous Serbian Church, designated archbishop of the 'Serbian and coastal lands.'
At the assembly held at Zica in 1219 he chose bishops from among his own pupils, consecrated them, established numerous bishoprics across Serbia, and gave the newly appointed bishops law books. He crowned his brother Stefan as the first Serbian king in 1220, and later crowned his nephews. He travelled throughout Serbia visiting, establishing, and consecrating churches, and oversaw the translation of ecclesiastical law into Slavonic. Before his final pilgrimage he appointed his loyal pupil Arsenije Sremac as his successor to the archbishopric.
Relics & Shrines
St. Sava died at Trnovo in 1235 and was buried at the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs there. On 6 May 1237 his relics were translated with the highest church and state honours to Mileseva monastery, where many healings were reported and pilgrims of various faiths were drawn to his grave.
During the Banat Uprising of 1594, Serbs rose against the Ottomans bearing the portrait of St. Sava on their war flags. In retaliation the Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha ordered the relics brought from Mileseva to Belgrade, where they were burned on 27 April 1594. It is believed that his left hand was saved, and it is kept at Mileseva. The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, one of the largest church buildings in the world, was built on the site where his relics were burned.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: When Sava brought his father's relics back to Studenica, their reported incorruptibility was credited with helping reconcile his feuding brothers and reunify the divided kingdom. Following the translation of his own relics to Mileseva in 1237, many healings were reported, and his grave attracted pilgrims of various faiths.
Traditional Accounts: By tradition, while on pilgrimage at Mar Saba he received the Trojerucica (the Three-handed Theotokos icon) and the crosier of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, both later kept at Hilandar. The synaxarion accounts relate that as a youth of seventeen he met a monk from Mount Athos and secretly departed for the monastic life, sending his worldly possessions and a letter home after receiving tonsure.
