Synaxis of the Serbian Hierarchs
The archbishops and patriarchs of the Serbian Church from Saint Sava onward, commemorated together on August 30 — the succession of Žiča and Peć through independence, empire and Ottoman rule.
On August 30 the Serbian Church commemorates its own hierarchs together — the archbishops of Žiča and Peć and the patriarchs who succeeded them, from Saint Sava, who obtained autocephaly for the Serbian Church in 1219, down through the Ottoman centuries. It is a succession rather than a generation: a line of men holding one office across six hundred years and three political worlds.
Some of them founded the institution. Sava organised the Church into bishoprics and gave it its law; Arsenije, his disciple and successor, moved the seat to Peć, where the patriarchate would remain. Ioannicius II was raised from archbishop to patriarch when the Serbian empire was proclaimed in 1346. Others held it together when there was little else left — Ephraim, twice called from his silence to the throne in the years of Kosovo; Macarius, who restored the patriarchate in 1557; Paisius, who spent his tenure copying manuscripts and repairing churches; Gabriel I, hanged at Constantinople.
Troparion & Kontakion2 hymnsReadHide
As the enlighteners of the Serbs, O God-bearing Fathers,
holy patriarchs and great shepherds,
guardians of the Apostolic traditions,
unshakable pillars, and teachers of Orthodoxy:
Beseech Christ, the Master of All,
to grant peace to the world, and to our souls great mercy.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Enthroned as hierarchs, and living lives worthy of praise,
in God-pleasing manner you guided your people to knowledge of God:
Because of this you were glorified by Him
through miracles and incorruption,
as befits pupils of the grace of God.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).