Saint Sava wins autocephaly for the Serbian Church
In Nicaea, where the Orthodox patriarch had resided since 1208, after the Latin conquest of Constantinople, Sava — a son of Stefan Nemanja and a monk of Mount Athos — was consecrated the first archbishop of an autocephalous Serbian Church; he set up his see at Žiča and organized the Church’s eparchies.
- Date
- 1219year known
- Place
- Nicaeatoday: İznik, Bursa Province, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Saint Sava, Theodore I Laskaris, Empire of Nicaea
- Threads
- Europe and the Mediterranean in the 13th century
- Also known as
- Žiča Archbishopric; Serbian Archbishopric; Жичская архиепископия; Сербская архиепископия
Rastko, the youngest son of the Serbian grand prince Stefan Nemanja, left for Mount Athos around 1192 and became the monk Sava; with his father, who took monastic vows as Simeon, he restored the monastery of Hilandar. Having returned to Serbia with his father’s relics (sources date this between the winter of 1205–06 and 1208), he became hegumen of Studenica. In 1217 his brother Stefan received a royal crown from Rome; the Serbian Church, however, was still subordinate to the archbishopric of Ohrid. In 1219 Sava travelled to Nicaea and was consecrated archbishop by Patriarch Manuel I; Emperor Theodore I Laskaris and the patriarch’s synod gave him authority over the “Serbian and coastal lands” and allowed future Serbian archbishops to be consecrated by their own bishops. The year is generally accepted; some accounts give the day as the feast of the Dormition, 15 August.
At an assembly at the monastery of Žiča, which became his see, Sava consecrated bishops chosen from among his pupils for new eparchies — among them Zeta, Hum, Dabar and Moravica — and supplied them with law books; his Zakonopravilo, a Slavonic nomocanon, or code of church law, was compiled in 1219 or 1220. He led the Church until 1233/34 and died at Tarnovo on 14 January 1235 or 1236; in 1237 his relics were moved to Mileševa. In 1253 the see was transferred to Peć, and in 1346 the archbishopric was raised to a patriarchate.
Connections
Related events
- Stefan Nemanja unites Serbiabetween 1166 and 1168 – 1196 · Balkans and AnatoliaSava was the youngest son of Stefan Nemanja; with his father, by then the monk Simeon, he restored the monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and AnatoliaAfter the Latin conquest of Constantinople the Orthodox patriarch resided in Nicaea, and it was there that Sava sought consecration
Same participants
- John III Vatatzes and the revival of the Empire of Nicaeabetween December 1221 and December 1222 – 3 November 1254 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Empire of Nicaea
Same place
- First Council of Nicaeabetween May and June 325 – between July and August 325 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Council of Nicaea24 September – 23 October 787 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Suleiman ibn Qutalmish founds the Sultanate of Rum at Nicaeabetween 1075 and 1081 · Balkans and Anatolia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Pope Honorius III confirms the Dominican Order22 December 1216 · Western and Central Europe
- Albigensian Crusade1209–1229 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Albigensian Crusade1209–1229
- Rise of the universities: Paris, Oxford and Cambridge1200 – 13 April 1231
- Rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral and the High Gothic10 June 1194 – 24 October 1260
Africa
- Rock-hewn churches of Lalibelac. 1181 – c. 1221
- Mapungubwe Hill, capital of the kingdom of Mapungubwec. 1220 – c. 1300
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Great Zimbabwe, the stone capital of a Shona kingdom1200–1299 – c. 1450
Central and Northern Asia
- Siege of BukharaFebruary 1220
- Siege of SamarkandMarch 1220
- Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire1219–1221
South Asia
- Construction of the Qutb Minarbetween 1193 and 1199 – between 1220 and 1232
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Construction of Angkor Thom and the Bayon1181 – c. 1218
North America
- Ancestral Puebloans build Cliff Palace at Mesa Verdec. 1190 – c. 1280
- The Thule migrate east across the Arctic to Greenlandc. 1200 – c. 1300
- Mississippian centres after Cahokia: Moundville, Etowah and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexc. 1200 – c. 1450
Latin America
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- The Kingdom of Cusco: the Inca state before the empirec. 1200 – c. 1438
- Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán1220s – between 1441 and 1461
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Saint Sava
- Wikipedia (English): Serbian Orthodox Church
- Wikipedia (Russian): Савва I Сербский
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сербская православная церковь
- Fine J. V. A. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. — Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.