Saint-Savahood (Svetosavlje) between Political Theology and Ideology of Nationalism in Serbia

Abstract

Nikolaj Velimirović’s definition of Svetosavlje or Saint-Savahood from 1953 as Or- thodox Christianity of Serbian style and experience is one of the most famous definitions of this term1. The term Svetosavlje was coined in early 1930s by students of the Faculty of Theology at University of Belgrade who launched a journal of that name2. Svetosavlje or Saint-Savahood refers to a medieval Serbian nobleman and the first archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Saint Sava Nemanjić (1175–1236). By linking Svetosavlje to Orthodox Christianity, Velimirović’s defini- tion implies its universal character while also, by restricting it to national history, particularising the universal Christian experience.