“Think Serbian” by Milovan Vitezović
Above history, wars, and states crafted by mighty military leaders, where fearless heroes are elevated to myths, stands the history of human struggle for the elevation of individuals, people, and nations, essentially the history of human peace and effort.
It is the history of human civilization, the wondrous rosary of cultures of nations.
This history is shaped by those who are the most powerful in mind and spirit. Among them, the heroes of centuries and nations stand out once again.
In the overall history of the Serbian people and the history of their culture, the figure of Sava Nemanjić stands out, the first Serbian archbishop and the founder of the spiritual history of the Serbs.
He foresaw the history of the people that needed to be realized and dared to be the first to create it.
Saint Sava Nemanjić was the first religious leader, first writer, first statesman, first legislator, first diplomat, first educator, and first healer for the Serbs.
The work of Sava Nemanjić is the foundation upon which the Serbian people recognize themselves in their state, their faith, their conviction, their language, their laws, and their justice.
Even before Sava Nemanjić, we were Serbs, but it is through him that we know we are Serbs.
The work of Sava Nemanjić is the baptismal certificate of the Serbian people, a testimony to its historical maturity, a guarantee of how its heritage is raised, his bastion on Serbian land, a testament by which the homeland is inherited, evidence in history that he permanently secured a place on the map of Europe and a covenant that no one may take that place away from him.
The permanence of this work led the world to call him Saint Sava the Serbian.
In the history of world literature during his lifetime, there are no more significant names than Saint Sava.
His work is among the series of works by Byzantine scholars, scholars, and writers that bridge the gap between the eras of antiquity and the Renaissance, enabling continuity in European culture.
By celebrating Saint Sava, we celebrate ourselves because history bestowed upon him the greatest human title – to be the teacher of his people in the pursuit of the highest values that affirm a nation.
The mere mention of Saint Sava obliges the nation to preserve everything he achieved.
Not forgetting Saint Sava and his work, we think about the future of the nation and our generations.
Contemplating the work of Saint Sava culminates in the question: what is so valuable that we are creating, and what will we leave for the future?
Sava is the first Serbian signature, and by that name, his entire nation signs.
Sava is the self-naming of the Serbs.
Saint Sava has been remembered and celebrated for several centuries, but he has also been forgotten and silenced for a few decades. He was celebrated rightfully, forgotten unjustly. It was an attempt to sever the eternal thread of history.
The attempt obviously failed because we do not have greater or more accurate addresses in history.
Saint Sava is the Serbian approach to the living God, but also the approach of the living God to the Serbs.
