The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) submitted an author's text by its member, historian Dragutin Papović.
We transmit the text in its entirety:
"One of the fundamental theses of Greater Serbian propaganda in Montenegro emphasizes that the first Serbian Archbishop Rastko (Sava) Nemanjić successfully converted Montenegrin ancestors to Orthodoxy, that the Serbian church became dominant, and that Sava often stayed in what was then Duklja (present-day Montenegro). However, sources say otherwise. Most of what is known about Sava's life and work is based on Sava's lives. The first was written by the Athonite monk Domentijan in the mid-13th century. The second was written by Teodosije Hilandarac in the late 13th or early 14th century, and information about the last years of Sava's life was recorded by Serbian Archbishop Danilo II in the "Life of Archbishop Arsenij", between 1324 and 1337. In combination with other sources, Sava's life has been fairly reconstructed.
Rastko was born around 1175 and his first notable role was in 1190. His father, Stefan Nemanja, appointed him as the joint prince of Hum. However, Rastko left Hum in 1192 and went to Mount Athos. He became a monk and took the name Sava. After his abdication in 1196, Stefan Nemanja joined him there, as the monk Simeon. They received permission from the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus to rebuild the Hilandar monastery. At the beginning of the 13th century, war broke out between Sava's brothers, Vukan, who styled himself King of Doclea and Dalmatia, and the great prefect Stefan Nemanjić. In order to mediate, allegedly, in the reconciliation of the brothers, Sava returned to Serbia between 1204 and 1207. Then he transferred the body of Nemanja (Simeon) to the Studenica monastery. From 1207, Sava lived in Serbia as the abbot of Studenica.
Grand Prefect Stefan and Archimandrite Sava skillfully exploited the political changes that occurred with the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders and the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204. The Roman Church imposed itself as the dominant political force, so Grand Prefect Stefan turned to Pope Honorius III for the royal crown, which he received from Rome in 1217, thus becoming the first Serbian king (Stephen the First-Crowned). Two centers arose on the remains of Byzantium. In Nicaea, Theodore I Laskaris was proclaimed emperor, supported by the Nicaean patriarch Manuel Saranten Charitopoulos. In Epirus, Theodore I Komnenos Doukas was proclaimed emperor, supported by the Ohrid archbishop Demetrius Homatinus. The Nicaean emperor and patriarch did not recognize the Epirus ruler and the Ohrid archbishop, nor did they recognize them. The Nemanjićs skillfully exploited this gap between the two Greek (provincial) centers. Sava went to Nicaea in 1219 and received permission from the Nicaean emperor and patriarch to form the Serbian Archbishopric, and he was appointed the first Serbian Archbishop. Historian Srđan Pirivatrić points out that the Serbian Archbishopric was "given the greatest possible autonomy", but that not a single document from the imperial or patriarchal office on the ordination and appointment of Sava or on the manner of consecration of future archbishops has been preserved. This was done against church regulations, because it violated the rights of the Ohrid Archbishopric. Canonical church jurisdiction in Serbia was held by the bishoprics of Ras, Prizren and Lipljan, which were within the Ohrid Archbishopric. For this reason, in May 1220, the Ohrid Archbishop Dimitrije Homatin sent a letter to Sava and threatened him with anathema. Homatin was quite right to point out that Sava's ordination was uncanonical. It was a purely political act. In order not only to prevent the church in Serbia from falling under the influence of the Pope, but also to prevent it from being tied to Epirus through the Ohrid Archbishopric, the emperor and the patriarch of Nicaea granted autocephaly to the church in Serbia in order to gain it for their, above all, political interests. Therefore, there is no valid church document on the formation of the Serbian Archbishopric. The act on the formation of the Serbian Archbishopric was interpreted at the Nicaean court as the emperor's grace, which he had the right to withdraw, which was done by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1272 when he issued a chrysovul for the Ohrid Archbishopric, which returned its jurisdiction over the largest part of Serbia and challenged, or rather annulled, the autocephaly and legality of the Serbian Archbishopric. It was formed uncanonically and during this period it was maintained only thanks to the political power of the Nemanjićs and the Serbian state.
Sava chose the Žiča Monastery as the seat of the archbishopric, and in 1220 he formed subordinate bishoprics. Three bishoprics were established on the territory of the former Duklja state: the Zeta bishopric ("in Zeta, Diocletian's Sea") with its seat in the former Benedictine monastery of St. Michael on Prevlaka near Tivat (although this thesis is disputed), the Hum bishopric with its seat in Ston, and the Budimlje bishopric with its seat in Đurđevi stupovi near Berane. However, Sava's biographers and contemporary sources do not state that Sava was then in Duklja. There were inter-confessional conflicts when these bishoprics were established. The Catholic bishop of Ston was exiled to Korčula. The Serbian archbishopric and its bishoprics did not have much influence on the territory of the former Duklja state at that time. During the period when Sava was archbishop, no Orthodox church was built in the area of present-day Montenegro. The bishoprics established by Sava in the area of Duklja (Montenegro) were in fact only missions that had yet to begin their conversion to Orthodoxy. During Sava's lifetime, this process did not move forward from the beginning. At that time, the existence of Orthodox Christians in Duklja was not recorded. At that time, only the Archdiocese of Duklja and Bar existed in Duklja, which Vukan Nemanjić restored in agreement with Pope Innocent III in 1199. Vukan, as the king of Duklja and Dalmatia, was a Catholic. In addition, Sava and the Serbian Archbishopric recognized the statehood of Duklja. Above the fresco of St. Sava in Mileševa, there is an inscription that art historian Vojislav J. Đurić read as "Sava, the first archbishop of all the Raška and Diocletian lands".
Not only did Sava's non-canonical archbishopric in Catholic Duklja record a missionary failure, but it also barely survived in Serbia. King Stefan the First-Crowned was succeeded in 1227 by his son Radoslav, who pursued a pro-Greek policy, and this was most influenced by his father-in-law, the ruler of Epirus and the emperor of Thessalonica, Theodore I Komnenos Duka. King Radoslav renounced Nemanja's surname, and took over the Byzantine imperial surname Duka from his in-laws and signed himself that way. He styled himself Stefan Duka, King of Serbia and Duklja. Despite the existence of the Serbian archbishopric and the fact that his uncle Sava was the Serbian archbishop, Radoslav turned to the Ohrid archbishop Dimitrije Homatin, who was a strong opponent of Sava, for canonical matters. Radoslav thus accepted the Ohrid (Greek) church and effectively annulled the autocephaly (autonomy) of the Archbishopric of Žička from 1219. Radoslav thus wanted to free himself from Sava's authority. Historian Božidar Ferjančić points out that this action caused Sava to leave Serbia and go on his first journey to the Holy Land in 1229–30, and that their relations did not improve even after Sava's return to the country. Radoslav's position in Serbia deteriorated in 1230 when his father-in-law, Emperor Theodore I Duka, suffered a heavy defeat in a battle with the Bulgarian Emperor John II Asen near Klokotnica, a tributary of the Maritsa River, in April 1230. A rebellion broke out against Radoslav, supported by Sava. Radoslav was overthrown, and Sava crowned Radoslav's brother Vladislav as the new king. Vladislav was the son-in-law of the Bulgarian Emperor John Asen II and his reign was marked by Bulgarian domination.
Sava left the archbishopric to his disciple Arsenius in 1234, and then he traveled to the Holy Land for the second and last time. According to Serbian chroniclers, Sava then stayed in Duklja for the only time. Domentijan states that Sava sailed to the Holy Land from the coast of the Diocletian Sea (морє дїωклитїиско), and Archbishop Danilo II adds that it was from Stari Grad. Most historians believe that Stari Grad is actually Budva, because that was its other name in the Middle Ages. If this is accepted as correct, it turns out that Sava passed through Duklja (Montenegro) only on his last journey. He sailed to Brindisi by ship. Theodosius stated that Sava, when received by the Patriarch of Alexandria, introduced himself as the Archbishop of Dalmatia and Duklja, because Serbia (Raška) was not yet known that far. Upon his return from the Holy Land, Sava visited the Bulgarian emperor in Trnovo and died there on 14 (27) January 1236, and King Vladislav transferred his body to the Mileševa Monastery in 1237–8.
Sava's biographers, Serbian chroniclers from the 13th and 14th centuries, state that Sava only passed through Duklja once. Given this fact, it is clear that the stories about Sava's frequent stays in the area of present-day Montenegro, the naming of numerous toponyms after him, and the stories about his cult are the product of much later legends, traditions, and fabrications. Despite the sources, Greater Serbian myth-mongers and legend-makers emphasize that Sava spent at least half of his life hiking in the Montenegrin ravines. They also say that he was a miraculous hydrologist because he "opened" several springs in Montenegro with his staff. It is clear that these are fairy tales, and Sava's real influence on Montenegrin history, religion, and culture was marginal until the mid-19th century. For example, Njegoš did not even mention Sava in his literary and state writings, and today's Greater Serbian propagandists, without a single piece of evidence, claim that Njegoš was the bishop of St. Sava. The cult of St. "St. Sava began to spread in Montenegro only in the second half of the 19th century, and St. Sava as a nationalist ideology with a quasi-religious framework was invented by Serbian theologians Dimitrije Najdanović and Nikolaj Velimirović between the two world wars. Serbian Nazi-fascist Dimitrije Ljotić took this St. Sava as the political program of his organization "Zbor". The largest part of the fabrications and mythomania about St. Sava in Montenegro actually arose in the last decade of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century as a propaganda tool of the Church of Serbia in its plan to Serbify Montenegro," Papović writes in his text.
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