Before biology and before modern theorists, Saint Sava knew that space (the homeland) and time (the heritage received from our ancestors, tradition) determine a people, and that race is therefore the foundation of all national values and all national manifestations. He therefore strove for the realization of a national state, for the gathering of all national forces, of all those who are connected by blood, into a single political community.
“For Saint Sava, a national state meant the homeland, the land of our fathers, in which one and the same people live.” (Bishop Nikolaj)
He therefore also gave the people an independent Church, a community like the community of blood, language, customs, and will. In the Saint-savian Church, the people feel that they are at home in their own land; they are neither molded into a rigid form nor alienated. The Saint-savian Church did not destroy the customs and habits of the people, but reconciled the old traditions and beliefs with the Teaching of Love.
- Branimir Maleš
NATION AND RACE IN THE LIGHT OF SAINT-SAVIAN THOUGHT,
Newspaper "Vreme", year 1941.