Commemoration of the burning of Saint Sava's relics () is now a
Serbian Orthodox religious holiday celebrated on 27 April (10 May in the Gregorian calendar). Archbishop Sava founded the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian ecclesiastical law and national literature. He was canonized as a miracle-worker and his religious cult was assimilated into folk beliefs in Ottoman times. The veneration of his relics created tension between Serbs and the occupying Ottomans. In 1774, Sava was proclaimed the patron saint of all Serbs. In the 19th century the cult was revived in the context of nationalism with the prospect of independence from the Ottomans, "representing and reproducing powerful images of a national Golden Age, of national reconciliation and unification, and of martyrdom for the church and nation". After Serbia regained full independence, a cathedral dedicated to the saint was planned, part of modernization plans of Belgrade. Although the construction board for the church was established in 1895, actual construction of the winning concept, based on
Gračanica and
Hagia Sophia, began only in 1935. Construction stopped during World War II and the communist rule, only to be restarted after permission in 1984; as of 2018 the church has been finished and is the second largest Orthodox Church in the world. The site where Saint Sava's relics were burnt, the Vračar plateau, became the new grounds of the
National Library of Serbia and the
Church of Saint Sava dedicated to the saint, in the 20th century. From its location, the church dominates Belgrade's
cityscape, and has become a national symbol. ==References==