The Order of St. Sava, also Sabaorden, was given as the Serbian Order of Merit in the Kingdom of Serbia and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as a state award. It was donated on 23 January 1883 by King Milan I of Serbia. Since 1945 he is the highest award of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Under the new religious law from 1883, this new order was created at that single Takovo Medal. The Order of the Cross of Takovo was converted into a pure military orders and the Order of St. Sava should now recognize the merits of the arts, science, education and religion.
It is named after the Serbian Saint Sava, and Sabbas, named. That was the youngest brother of the first Serbian king Stephan and the first Serbian writer. He was revered as the founder of the Serbian public education and to the monastery Hilandar founded in 1192 on Mount Athos, which was considered as the root of science and arts in the country.
Medal classes
The Order had five classes.
Grand Cross
Grand Officer
commander
officer
knight
Medal decoration
An enamelled, eight-pointed Maltese cross with gold edging and small balls at the eight points of the cross is the decoration. The cross is enamelled white and has a blue border. In the cross angles is ever a golden double eagle. The eagle chest shows the Serbian coat of arms in an oval. For the first three classes, the coat of arms is colored. In the oval locket is located on the front of the gold colored picture of St. Sava. In blue enamelled gold hoop aggregate the Serbian initials in gold "in your own home power is found." This comes from an old Serbian church Proverbs.
The back shows the intertwined initials of the founder ML medallion topped with a crown. The frost is on the reverse golden laurel branches. Attached to the order cross a broken golden royal crown and with a gold ornament on the cross arm completes the decoration.
Only for the fifth grade, everything is made of silver. The Klassenstufung also took place about the size.
Ribbon and carrying method
The ribbon was white and provided on both sides with a light blue wide stripe.
The first class was wearing the Order as a sash over his shoulder. II., And III. Class wore a neck Medal and the last two classes decorated in his buttonhole. The IV. Class took the tape in the form of a rosette.
An Order Star also was provided for the I. and II. Class. This is a brillantierte with the cross of the Order centrally occupied breast star. The crown was missing and was the same for the II. Class, just a bit smaller.
