St. Sava

  Posted on January 13, 2019  by admin  No comments

Born: 1176 as Rastko Nemanjic

Died: 14 January 1235 at Tirnovo, Bulgaria of natural causes

Patronage: Serbia, Serbs

Prince of Serbia, the son of King Stephen I Nemanya. He took the name Sava (Sabas) when he became a monk at Mount Athos. His father later surrendered his crown and became a monk, too, and together they founded the monastery at Chilanari as a house for Serbs. Sava returned home in 1207 when a quarrel between his brothers, Stephen II and Vulkan, broke into civil war. Sava brought monks with him, founded several monasteries, and began the reformation and education of his country, where religion and education had fallen to a low estate. Metropolitan of a new Serbian hierarchy by Emperor Theodore II Laskaris at Nicaea, being reluctantly consecrated by Patriarch Manuel I in 1219. Crowned his brother Stephen II as King of Serbia in 1222. He finished the uniting of his people that had been begun by his father. Translated religious works into Serbian, and gave his people a native clergy and hierarchy. Dispatched to the Holy Land on an ecclesiastical mission, Sava died on the way home.

Prayer of St. Sava

MOST GOOD LORD, Thou hast said: Those who search for Me will find Me; and to him who knocks on the door of My mercy will I open; and to those who call on Me in truth will I hear; and I will act according to the will of those who fear Me and love Me, and I will answer their prayers.
Yes; and I, my Holy Master, beg only for Thy mercy, to live here in Thy house all the days of my life, beholding Thine insatiable beauty, and attending the church of Thy Most Pure Mother.

Because it was to Thee that my heart spoke: I shall search for the Lord, I Thy lamb gone astray. And now I am filled with longing for Thee, searching for Thee, my true Shepherd. Accept me by Thine unspeakable mercy and lead me into Thy pasture, and count me as one of the sheep of Thy chosen flock, and along with them nourish me with Thy divine Mysteries. And count me among the ranks of these holy monks who serve Thee that I may not, by being detained too long to enter, be devoured by the evil beast, that ancient enemy, and remain outside Thy festive court.

And so, in Thy name, O Lord, and by the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother, I bend my neck under Thy holy yoke. According to the words of Thy Gospel, I place Thy yoke upon my shoulders—alleviate my weight and strengthen all my limbs with faith and with Thy love. In righteousness and justice make me worthy to glorify Thee, to sing and to bow to Thy holy and most magnificent Name all the days of my life, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the ages. Amen.