St Sava of Serbia

Born Rastko Nemanjić, youngest son of the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja, he slipped away to Mount Athos as a teenager and became the monk Sava. When his father abdicated and joined him as the monk Symeon, the two restored the ruined monastery of Hilandar, which became the heart of Serbian spiritual life and remains so today. Sava returned home to reconcile his feuding brothers and to organize church life, and in 1219 he obtained from the patriarch in Nicaea the autocephaly of the Serbian Church, becoming its first archbishop. He wrote the first Serbian typikon and legal code framework, founded schools, and travelled twice to the Holy Land. He died at Trnovo in Bulgaria while returning from pilgrimage. Centuries later the Ottomans burned his relics in Belgrade to break Serbian devotion — and instead fixed his memory forever. He is the patron of Serbia and of schools.