Saint Sava the Sanctified

Orthodox icon of Saint Sava the Sanctified on thick plywood 20mm, which does not sting and keeps its shape over time. Preparation with acrylic stucco and have been used acrylic colors. It has been covered with varnish to keep the colors undiluted in time and humidity. Hanging clip included on the back of the icon. 

St. Sava was born at Moutalaske near Caesarea of Cappadocia. Journeying to Alexandria on military matters, his parents left their five-year-old son in the care of an uncle. When the boy reached eight years of age, he entered the nearby monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch. When he was 17 years old he received monastic tonsure and subsequently spent ten years at the monastery of Bishop Flavian. After that, Sabbas went to Jerusalem, and from there to the monastery of Saint Euthymius the Great. But Euthymius sent Sabbas to Abbas Theoctistus, the head of a nearby monastery with a strict cenobitic rule. Sabbas lived in obedience at this monastery until the age of thirty. After the death of the Elder Theoctistus, his successor blessed Sabbas to seclude himself in a cave. When Euthymius died (c. 473), Sabbas withdrew from the lavra, and moved to a cave near the Monastery of St. Gerasimus of the Jordan.  After several years, disciples began to gather around Sabbas, seeking the monastic life. As the number of monks increased, the Great Lavra sprang up. Patriarch Salustius of Jerusalem ordained him in 491 and appointed him archimandrite of all the monasteries in Palaestina Prima in 494. Sabbas composed the first monastic rule of church services, the so-called Jerusalem Typikon, for guidance of all the Byzantine monasteries. He died in the year 532. His feast day is on 5 December.