Saint Sava

On December 5 the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Sava. He is known as demons persecutor and healer of various diseases. St. Sava was born in Cappadocia in 4 century AD in rich and noble family. At the age of 18 he went cloistered. Having spent 12 years there, he looked for further seclusion and settled into a cave, where he had his time in fast and prayers. Soon other believers joined him. Sava came into enormous inheritance, which he used for building monasteries, hospitals and inns.
The feast is closely connected with traditional people’s believes. In some places Sava is believed to be a woman, a saint, sister of Varvara and Nicholas. In other places Sava is a man, protector of wolves, also called “wolfherd”. Beliefs tell Sava is a sister of Varvara, commemorated by the Church on December 4, and St. Nicholas. Varvara is the worse of the two sisters – often she is described as a lame old woman, leaning on a crutch, and when touching children with it, they getting ill. Sava is the good sister. She always follows Varvara and begs her to stop harming, and not to drop ice grains over the fields. The Bulgarians have a saying “Saint Varvara kneads, Saint Sava bakes, Saint Nicholas eats”, that reveals the indivisibility of the three saints. Normally St. Sava’s day passes in preparation for the festal dinner on St. Nicholas’ day (the day after). On St. Sava’s day women should not touch sharp objects to avoid being harmed by Varvara.