Speech about Saint Sava

A lot is known about Saint Sava. It is known that he was born as Rastko, that he was the son of Stefan Nemanja, that he renounced the role of ruler and that he became a monk. Also, there are things that are not known about him. The exact year of his birth is unknown. If such simple information about the son of the great prefect has not been preserved, it is pointless to talk about other people of that time.

The time of eight centuries has brought oblivion. What is not remembered is lost forever. One part of the past has been permanently erased. If there is no preserved evidence that something happened, it simply did not happen. Whole generations disappeared, in the indifferent course of history, without anything to testify about them.

In an era in which it is possible to preserve all human knowledge as a series of zeros and ones, there are fewer and fewer memories. People are increasingly susceptible to oblivion, and the cruel nature of transience supports this. It is difficult, however, to be sure of anything in the present. After denying and annulling all values over the years, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a firm foothold in a chaotic world.

During the clash of civilizations, in a multiethnic environment, identities also became very complex, incomprehensible, unaccepted. In a world that is rushing towards globalization and the abolition of the self, where the very uniqueness of each individual is denied, even the national affiliation is endangered due to numerous migrations.

One of the biggest difficulties, but also the challenge of this century, is the combination of tradition and modernity. One cannot progress if one does not know what preceded that progress. Because of such negligence towards the past, both individual and national, the world is trapped in a whirlwind of wars and hopeless repetition of the tragic lives of individuals, from which it cannot be easily freed without a firm awareness and feeling for the past. Saint Sava could be light. As a person in the folk tradition, he became the pinnacle of moral values, a teacher who taught his compatriots in good faith. So it was within the real world. By opening schools, building numerous churches and monasteries, he laid a solid foundation for the development of a potentially rich and modern nation. Mixing in our consciousness, the real and the mythical Sava, only strengthens the idea of its importance for survival in a time in which, in addition to personal wrong values, they are taken over en masse from others. It is not surprising that his relics were burned with the intention of discouraging the people and destroying the sense of belonging. The most effective methods of destroying nationalities are certainly the prohibition of language and history. Therefore, there is obviously something in them that could be permanent, something that would offer resistance and last, continued through individuals, but also transcended them, thus leaving a testimony to future generations about their origin.

The oblivion of Saint Sava is the oblivion of an entire nation. His denial and annulment is the annulment of himself. Not understanding his contribution is not understanding and not valuing the immeasurable wealth of a culture. Nationalism and patriotism are not ugly words. In the epoch of disappearance, it is easiest to disappear, and one must, one must, resist with all one's might the whole chaos of the universe, finding support, existing and firm like Hilandar. The most important thing that Sava preached and that is the healthy basis of civilization is love, be it love for God, for the people, for wisdom, or simply for oneself. This is the only way to believe in miracles, in the material world of the tangible, because it is confirmed through the visible invisible. Thus, through nature, harmony and precise construction of the cosmos are proven, and through schools and churches, all the miracles of the greatest Serbian saint are confirmed. And they did happen. That's why we're here today.