Деца Светог Саве: порекло и смисао заветне заједнице код Срба

English title: The Children of Saint Sava: The Origin and Meaning of the Covenantal Community Among Serbs

The article “The Children of Saint Sava: The Origin and Meaning of the Covenantal Community Among Serbs” analyzes the concept of the covenantal community as one of the key patterns of Serbian collective identity. Starting from early medieval Christianization, the Svetosavlje tradition and the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the article interprets the Serbian community as a historically continuous moral and spiritual whole.

Particular attention is given to Saint Sava as the symbolic center of the covenantal understanding of community. In the article, the Svetosavlje tradition is not understood merely as an ecclesiastical or educational cult, but as a complex historical model connecting faith, statehood, memory, political legitimacy and the idea of moral obligation toward past and future generations.

The article places the Serbian case within a broader European context of chosen-people narratives and covenantal identity, while emphasizing the distinctive features shaped by Orthodox Christianity, the history of the Serbian Church and the experience of state collapse and renewal. In this way, the article contributes to studies of political theology, symbolic power, cultural memory and national identity in Southeast Europe.