BALKAN SAINTS - Mirjana Detelić

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The end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century were turning
points in the process of creating an independent state of Serbia under the Nemanjic
dynasty. Independence in 1217 and autonomy for the Serbian church two years later were
followed by a series of actions aimed at the ideological reform of society and adjustment
to the standards of the time. This process was described at the time as the creation of „the
perfect nation‟. It involved the assimilation of certain aspects of civilisation from
elsewhere in Europe, especially Byzantium and including theology, liturgy, canon law,
ideology, and art (Cirkovic 1981, 251-408; cf. also Cirkovic 1997, 53-63; Marjanovic-
Dusanic 1997). St Sava, born Rastko Nemanjic, youngest son of the founder of the
dynasty and brother of the first king, Stefan, contributed to these reforms (Cirkovic
1998). He also had a crucial influence on the organisation of monastic life, having
experienced Eastern monastic practice during his early youth on Mount Athos, and later
in the deserts of Palestine and Egypt. In the long tradition of Christian monasticism, a
special place was given to a mixed, flexible style of living which runs parallel to both the
mainstream cenobitic organisation and the solitary lavriotic and anchoritic way of life
(Papachryssanthou 1973, 158-180; Spidlik, Tenace, and Cemus 1999, esp. 231-59, Les
formes de la vie monastique; Flusin 1993). There was already an older, local tradition in
the Balkans, much influenced by the illustrious desert-dwellers in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, such as St John of Rila, St Prohor of Pchinja, St Joachim of Osogovo and St
Gabriel of Lesnovo (Pavlovic 1965, 20-33; Duĭcev 1947). Thanks to them, important
sacral points were created in the Balkans in imitation of desert places and holy mountains
elsewhere in the Orthodox world (Маlcev and Rangocev 2000, 9-24). They also inspired
hagiographic and liturgical works in which their lives and exploits were lauded and ideal
characters created (Ivanov 1931, 345-383, 394-418; La Bauve Hébert 1992).
Sava promoted this „larger than life‟ concept through personal example,
scholarship, and purpose. In this he was helped by the acceptance in Byzantine
monasticism that it was not enough to have a high position in the hierarchy to gain
spiritual authority. Rather, it was the experience of individual asceticism, which could be
achieved only through the anchoritic, desert way of life. Individuals who walked that way
were considered exceptional, persons close to God, predestined for the role of spiritual
leaders (Morris 1995). Sava belonged to that category of „holy‟ people who deployed
both charisma and miracle-making, and – more than anything else – the gift of
outspokenness (parresia) to mediate and address the Deity (Popović 2000, 138-56; on
parresia, Flusin 1983, 178-81; Morris 1995, 89-90). He was also aware of the widespread
understanding, developed in the ancient asceticism of Palestine – that charisma, gained in
the desert, continued to radiate in new surroundings. So, it was believed, authentic
ascetics wielded a protective influence on society and its institutions, and brought
security to the state (Flusin 1983, 200-08; Popovic&Popovic 1999, 126-29).
Sava‟s eremitism as related by his biographers offers researchers an interesting
challenge, to understand the relationship between historical and hagiographical data. A
history scholar is naturally encouraged to gauge the authenticity and nature of Sava‟s
desert experience, and that is the purpose of this study.
Sava was born in 1175 or 1176. His hagiographers, Domentijan and Teodosije,
relied on well-known topoi when relating Sava‟s growing up and the spiritual attitude
manifest from his boyhood. (About the phases of a saint‟s life and the mechanics of cultmaking,
Hackel 1981; Flusin 1983, 87-54; Galatariotou 1991.) „Having tried a little of the