The
Holy Lavra of
St. Savas (Jerusalem)
Also known as St. Savvas
and Mar Saba, was founded by St. Savvas in
478 as an anchorite colony of
monks. It is located in the Kidron Gorge
(Wadi en-Nar) near Jerusalem. The
monastery influenced greatly the
development of the Orthodox church services
and
typikon. The monastery in ancient times
was known as the Great
Lavra.
In the fifth century, St. Savvas’
Monastery developed around the cell of St.
Savvas in the cliffs of the Kidron Gorge near
Jerusalem as an assemblage of anchorite
monks settled near in him in similar
cave-like cells. These monks came looking
for his spiritual leadership. Initially,
they built cells, as had St. Savvas, in caves
along two kilometers of cliffs around the
present day monastery. Many of these cells
developed into multi-chambered dwellings and
included prayer niches and
chapels. During archaeological surveys
in the latter twentieth century some
forty-five of these hermitages of the Lavra
have been examined and preserved. In time
two
churches were built on the floor of the
ravine to serve the community.
Today, the monastery complex consists of
two churches, with the tomb of St. Savvas in
a courtyard between them, and a number of
chapels, a common dining room, kitchen,
storerooms, cisterns, dwelling cells for the
monks, and a hostel for visitors. On the
feast day of St. Savas,
December 5, the hostel is often filled
with upwards of two hundred pilgrims.
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Great
Lavra of St. Savas the Sanctified |
The central church is dedicated to the
Theotokos, St. Mary. A second church,
originally called Theoktistos, built into a
cave, is now dedicated to St. Nicholas. The
chapels are:
- The Chapel of Ss Joachim and Anna,
the parents of the Theotokos.
- The Chapel of St John Chrysostom.
These chapels were built in chambers that
had been dwellings of monks.
- The Chapel of St. John of Damascus,
which is also dedicated to St. John the
Baptist.
This chapel is located in the cave
hermitage where St. John of Damascus lived
during the early eighth century.
- The Chapel of St. George.
- The Chapel of the Archangels.
The Chapel of the Archangels is of recent
origin, having been built by an
abbot,
Archimandrite Seraphim, during the
middle of the twentieth century.
Typikon
As St. Savvas’
monastery of hermitages grew, a need was
recognized for organizing the religious
services of the community. Within the
community, practices and customs used by the
monastic communities in Palestine,
Egypt, and Anatolia, as well as the
cathedral services in Jerusalem, were
assembled into the Typikon of the ‘‘Church
Service of the Holy Lavra at Jerusalem of
our God-bearing Father St. Savvas’’.
This original Typikon of St. Savvas
quickly became a reference for monastic
services in the Orthodox Church. It was
expanded during the seventh and eighth
centuries and later synthesized with
Palestinian and Constantinopolitan usages.
The revised Typikon of St. Savvas was widely
adopted and, by the fifteenth century, had
replaced the typikons of the Cathedral
Office and the
Studion Monastery of Constantinople. In
1545, it became the first printed typikon.
With efforts of Sister
Dorothea, Serbian Orthodox nun from Jerusalem
and Mrs. Gordana Sipka from
Novi Sad,
the
silver filigree vigil lamp was
donated by Serbian Orthodox pilgrims to Great Lavra
Of St. Savvas, in honor of deceased Fr.
George, Serbian Archimandrite from this
monastery.
