Venerable Savva, Igoumen of Zvenigorod, Disciple of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh
Saint Savva of Zvenigorod forsook the world in his early youth, and received the monastic tonsure from Saint Sergius of Radonezh (September 25 and July 5), and was his disciple and fellow-ascetic.
Saint Savva loved solitude, and avoided conversing with people. He lived in constant toil, lamenting the poverty of his soul, and trembling before the judgment of God. He was a model of simplicity and humility, and he attained such a depth of spiritual wisdom that “in the Monastery of Saint Sergius he was the Father Confessor to all the brethren, a venerable and most learned Elder.”
When Great Prince Demetrios of the Don built the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God at the Dubenka River, in gratitude for the victory over Mamai, Savva became the Igoumen, with the blessing of Saint Sergius. Maintaining the simple manner of his life of asceticism, he ate plants, wore coarse clothing and slept on the ground.
When their Igoumen Saint Nikon (November 17) left to go into the wilderness in 1392, the brethren of the Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra asked Saint Savva to become the Igoumen of the Monastery. He shepherded the flock entrusted to him well, to the best of his ability, helped by the prayers of his Spiritual Father, Saint Sergius. According to Tradition, the well outside the Lavra walls was built while he was Igoumen.
Prince Yuri of Zvenigorod, a godson of Saint Sergius, regarded Saint Savva with much love and esteem. He chose Saint Savva as his Spiritual Father and begged him to come and bestow his blessing upon his entire household. The Saint had hoped to return to his Monastery, but the Prince begged him to stay and establish a new monastery in his homeland, near Zvenigorod, at a place called Storozhev.
Saint Savva acceded to Prince Yuri's request, and praying tearfully before an icon of the Mother of God, he entreated her protection for that site in the wilderness. At Storozhev he built a small wooden church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and nearby a small cell for himself. Here he established a Monastery in 1399, and with paternal love, he accepted all who came seeking a life of quietude and seclusion.
Saint Savva worked very hard to build up the Monastery. He dug a well at the foot of the hill, from which he carried water on his own shoulders. He encircled the Monastery with a wooden palisade, and in a hollow above it, he dug a cell where he could live in solitude.
In 1399 Saint Savva blessed his spiritual son, Prince Yuri, to go on a military campaign, predicting that he would defeat his enemy. Through the prayers of the holy Elder, the Prince's army won a speedy victory. Through the efforts of Saint Savva, a stone church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was built to replace the old wooden one.
After appointing his disciple, who was also named Savva, as his successor, Saint Savva went to the Lord at an advanced age on December 3, 1406. News of the holy God-pleaser's repose quickly spread throughout the vicinity, and all the Christ-loving citizens of Zvenigorod, both noble and commoners, gathered for the burial of the departed Saint, bringing with them the infirm and sick. After singing hymns over the deceased, they buried him with honor in the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, which he himself had built.
Veneration of the holy God-pleaser by the local people began immediately after his death. The miraculous curative power issuing from the Saint's grave and his numerous appearances convinced everyone that Igoumen Savva was a Saint. In a letter of 1539 Saint Savva was described as a wonderworker. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich had a special veneration for him, frequently visiting the Monastery of Saint Savva on foot. Tradition has preserved a remarkable account of how Saint Savva was saved from a ferocious bear.
The Life of Saint Savva, compiled in the XVI century, relates that at the end of the XV century (1480-1490), the Saint appeared to Father Dionysios, the fourth Igoumen of Saint Savva Monastery and said: “Dionysios! Wake up and paint my icon.” When Father Dionysios asked who he was, he replied, “I am Savva, the founder of this abode.”
Father Dionysios had not known the Saint personally, so he summoned Elder Habakkuk, who had known Saint Savva in his youth, hoping to convince himself that his dream was not a delusion. He described the Saint's outward appearance, and Father Habakkuk assured him that the Saint looked exactly as the Igoumen had seen him in his dream. Then Father Dionysios obeyed Saint Savva's order and painted his icon.
Saint Savva was numbered among the Saints at the Moscow Council of 1547. His incorrupt relics were recovered on January 19, 1652.
The first uncovering of the Saint's relics occurred on January 19, 1652; and the second on August 10, 1998.