“The Monk Savva chose for his monastery a terrible Valley of Fire, a naked, dead gorge in the Judean desert,” wrote Ivan Bunin about this monastery. The Monastery of Mar Saba is rightfully considered the pearl in the Judean Desert. But the monastery amazes not only with its beauty. Mar Saba is so huge and majestic that it looks more like a fortress.
However, not everyone is able to see this miracle. How can this be in a small country where all the hiking trails are traveled far and wide? Firstly, Mar Saba is located in Palestine, where tourist buses from Israel do not go. As you know, official Tel Aviv does not recognize Palestinian shrines.
Even Israeli citizens, such as tour guides and bus drivers, are prohibited from entering Arab-controlled territory by the government. Secondly, the monastery was lost in the gorges of the Judean mountains. It seems that Jerusalem is close at hand - only 14 km, and even less to Bethlehem.
But only part of the path can be overcome by car, and a significant part of it must be walked through the scorched desert under the scorching southern sun, clambering over the rocks and climbing the mountain along the rocky path. There are not many hunters for such extreme. However, this is not even the point - women are not allowed into Mar Saba at all.
Even female animals are not allowed to enter. And given that the majority of pilgrims in any Orthodox monastery are women, as a rule, Russians, it is understandable why the wonderful Lavra does not receive much attention from the pilgrims. However, this does not diminish her merits in the least.
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The Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba is not just some kind of remote abode, in which a dozen hermit monks have gathered. This is ideology, the last bastion of faith, authority, and finally, a special charter that has been in effect for many centuries, more precisely, one and a half thousand years.
This is due to the fact that the Lavra is located far from the world, and this makes it almost the only truly hermitic monastery of the East. In addition, for centuries there has been a special procedure for selecting inhabitants.
It happens that the ministers of the church spend many years waiting for permission to enter the walls of the monastery and revered receiving it as a great honor and trust from the Patriarchate. Men are allowed not only to inspect the Lavra, but also, if they wish, to stay there for some time to participate in the full cycle of services.
However, this does not mean that everyone can claim a place among the monks. The selection is as strict as the monastic charter, known among the Orthodox as the Jerusalem charter, is strict.
The Rule of the Monk Sava largely regulates the order of divine services, although it describes the monastic traditions of the 6th century Palestinian monasteries. The original copy of the Jerusalem charter, according to Simeon of Thessaloniki, burned down in 614 when Jerusalem was captured by the Persian king Khosrow.
The service takes place at night. On normal days it starts at about 1.30 am and lasts until 6.30. On especially solemn and public holidays, the night service begins even earlier - at about 23.00 Israel time.
Unlike most churches in the Middle East, in Mar Saba, deep confession and preparation for the sacrament of Holy Communion is not a formality. The abbot himself always professes in Greek, as a rule, in his office. The abbot is an experienced confessor, to whom many Palestinian priests from the surrounding towns and villages go to confess their sins.
In the Lavra of St. Sava, everything is done to completely renounce the world. There is no electricity, cellular communication does not work. The main buildings of the monastery are surrounded by a magnificent stone wall. The charter is not performed according to Israel's time, but according to Byzantine time, which is determined by the sun.
Order in the monastery was established by Sawa - a monk who arrived in search of solitude in the Judean Desert from Cappadocia around 484. Bogomolets dug a cave and took up the monastic feat far from human eyes.
The fame of the hermit spread throughout the Middle East, and soon he had followers. Through joint efforts, a monastery was built - a monastery on Mount Azazel. But many monks also lived in the wilderness stretching for many kilometers and gathered once a week for joint worship.
They huddled in caves carved into the rocks with their own hands. Savva established extremely strict rules in the monastery, the monks lived modestly, even ascetic. But it was thanks to this that the monastery enjoyed great authority and respect.
Emperor Justinian himself supported the Lavra. During his reign, fortified monastic walls and a watchtower, called Justinian's, were built. By the end of Sava's life, about 5,000 monks were working in the monastery.
After death, the imperishable relics of Savva were kept in the Annunciation Church. At first, his tomb was located in a small domed tomb in the central square of the monastery. However, in 1256, the remains were taken to Venice by the crusaders and placed in the church of San Antonio.
On November 12, 1965, the relics were returned to the Lavra of Sava the Sanctified as a gesture of goodwill for Pope Paul VI. To this day, in Venice there is a monastic cross of the Monk Sava, made, according to legend, from the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.
During its existence, the monastic life in the Lavra never stopped, although the Lavra was repeatedly destroyed and restored again. The monastery was finally restored by Russia, which considered itself the successor of Byzantium, in 1840.
In our time, the abbot of the monastery is the Jerusalem patriarch, and the monastery is governed by an abbot in the rank of archimandrite and two assistants. In the morning, after a meager meal, the gates of the monastery open to a few visitors, and you can get there before sunset.
The monastery is very popular among not only local Palestinian Christians, but also Muslims, as it feeds the residents of nearby villages. Boys from the neighboring village of Ubediye easily climb up to the walls of the monastery, and the dignified fathers of families also love to sit at the Justinian tower, admiring the beauty of the desert landscapes and listening to the sound of the stream flowing in the Kidron Gorge under the walls of the monastery.