Savva New

Rev. Savva was born in 1862 in the village of Iraklitsa ( East Thrace ). The worldly name is Basil. His parents were very poor people. From an early age, Vasily dreamed of devoting himself to monastic life . Every day and his favorite pastime was reading everyday literature. Upon learning of this, the parents at the age of 12 made the monk interrupt his studies and made him a small shopkeeper. Mother threatened him with her death if he decided to become a monk . After which young Vasily fled to Mount Athos , having come to the monastery of St. Anne.

After twelve years of service on Mount Athos , in 1890 , Savva went to Jerusalem to worship the holy places and tonsured at the monastery of St. George Hosevita. The abbot of the monastery forced him to return to the Holy Mountain , to study icon painting and Byzantine church music.

In 1897 , the Monk Savva again returned to Jerusalem . He was in it until 1916 . He worked in the mountains of Jordan . After five years in Jerusalem, he was ordained a priest . After that, for three years he served at the Patriarchal School of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem . After the last events that happened to him, he retired to the monastery of the Khuziv monastery, in which he led a firm and strict ascetic life. His main occupations were icon painting and prayer .

In 1916 , Savva the New returned to Greece . Upon learning there of his search by Metropolitan Pentapolis Nectarius , he immediately went to him on the island of Aegina . After the funeral of Metropolitan Nectaria, the Monk Savva went into the gate. After forty days of absolute solitude, he left the cell holding in his hands the first icon painted by him to Saint Nectarios. He ordered the abbess of the monastery to place her in the temple for worship. To this she began to object and say that Nectarius was not yet glorified by the Church . Rev. Savva said: “You must obey. Take the icon, put it in the temple, and henceforth do not resist the will of God . "

After the death of his spiritual mentor, Saint Sava lived in his cell on the island of Aegina , located near the monastery of the Holy Trinity . He handed out every new income to the poor.

In 1926 he moved to the monastery of All Saints due to the fact that in the monastery of the Holy Trinity he could not achieve silence and constant prayer. The ascetic built his new little cell there, a little closer to the monastery, in which he was several years before his death. Most of the male population of Kalymnos were divers. They fed their families with sponges under water. Many men became disabled or died in marine work. Their families lived in constant fear of losing the breadwinner and being left without a livelihood.

Many people came to Saint Sava for spiritual and physical comfort, help, advice. He did not refuse anything to anyone. For twenty-two years of service, he was revered as a saint, calling “Father Sava”. From the priest always came a pleasant aroma. He taught all those around him, including children.

He was abstained in food. Most of all he prayed for orphans, the poor, widows . He ate only prosphora and wine. When evening came, he painted icons or accepted confession , or took scrap in his hands and put stones in them, so that, as he said, "it’s not for nothing to eat your bread." Saint Savva slept in a leaky stool no more than two hours a day. The remaining time he devoted entirely to the service of God and his neighbors. During the Second World War, the ascetic spent whole nights in prayer for the people. When enemy planes flew over the monastery, overshadowed them with a sign of the Cross. Sometimes he refused silence for the sake of his brothers, consoled people during trials, and shared with them a fiery love for Christ . The monk could spend hours confessing , carefully reading all the prayers. He could never reconcile himself to blasphemy and condemnation in his life.

Rev. Savva always, when he had money, distributed it to the poor and needy. The workers, working in his home, themselves took payment for their labors from a box in which he piled all the money. March 25, 1948 for three days, Saint Sava retired to his cell. When he left her, he threw up his hands and stopped with the words: “Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord!” One of the nuns saw this, and how his soul ascended to heaven in a golden cloud in the sounds of heavenly singing.

The memory of the Monk Savva the New, hieromonk is celebrated on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent .

• Monastery of the Holy Trinity (Aegina)

• In the Orthodox Church, the memory of Sava New is celebrated on March 25 ( April 7) .

• Rev. Savva the New; Athos
• April 7th; Savva New
• Savva New
• Orthodox calendar; Rev. Savva the New