The Society of

Saint Sava Saint Sava ( sr, Свети Сава, Sveti Sava, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; gr, Άγιος Σάββας; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1236), known as the Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalou ...

or Saint Sava Society ( sr, Друштво „Свети Сава“/Društvo „Sveti Sava“) was a Serbian non-governmental association with the aim of maintaining and protecting the

Serb people The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, in

Old Serbia Old Serbia ( sr, Стара Србија, Stara Srbija) is a Serbian historiographical term that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the ...

and Macedonia, and in Austro-Hungarian Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 1886 in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, the capital of the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...

. It was active, with a brief pause during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, until the

Invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...

(1941).

History

Work in Macedonia

The society worked for dissemination of Serbian propaganda in the

region of Macedonia Macedonia () is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. T ...

and Old Serbia. The Society offered paid scholarships to those who called themselves Serbo-Macedonians. The society organized in Serbia specialized schools for children of Macedonia and Old Serbia and developed a propaganda among the Macedonians working in Serbia. Only three years later, its executive body became part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia. Its propaganda was so strong that after a sequence of student riots in the

Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki The Sts. Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki ( bg, Солунска българска мъжка гимназия „Св. св. Кирил и Методий“, ''Solunska balgarska mazhka gimnazia „Sv. sv. Kiril i ...

, a group of 34 students accepted the proposal of the Serbian emissaries to go and study free of cost to Belgrade. They soon became aware of the obvious reasons behind its program, when they were forbidden to possess Bulgarian literature. Subsequently, nearly the whole group left Belgrade to continue its education in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. Among that group were

Dame Gruev Damyan Yovanov Gruev (,The first names can also be transliterated as ''Damjan Jovanov'', after Bulgarian Дамян Йованов Груев and Macedonian Дамјан Јованов Груев. The last name is also sometimes rendered as ''Gr ...

Petar Pop Arsov Petar Pop-Arsov ( bg, Петър Попарсов, mk, Петар Поп Арсов) originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography: ''Петъръ попъ Арсовъ''; (14 August 1868 – 1 January 1941) was a Bulgarian educator and ...

Krste Misirkov Krste Petkov Misirkov ( bg, Кръсте (Кръстьо) Петков Мисирков; mk, Крсте Петков Мисирков, ; 18 November 1874 – 26 July 1926) was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the regio ...

, Kosta Shahov, etc. As a result, one of the main reasons for the establishment of the

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

(IMRO) by Dame Gruev and Petar Pop Arsov in 1893 was to stop the spread of Serbian propaganda into Macedonia. Later the society's fellows constituted the backbone of the

Serbian Chetnik Organization Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation) ...

.The Balkan Wars in the Eyes of the Warring Parties: Perceptions and Interpretations
Igor Despot, iUniverse, 2012, , p. 14. Bulgarian contemporaries used the term "

Serbomans Serbomans (Serbo-Croatian and mk, србомани, srbomani; bg, сърбомани, sarbomani; ro, sârbomani) is a Bulgarian pejorative term used by Bulgarian nationalists for inhabitants in the region of Macedonia that claimed Serbian ethnic ...

" for Serbs in Macedonia.

Members

;Founders *

Svetomir Nikolajević Svetomir Nikolajević (Raduša (Ub), Raduša, September 21, 1844 – Belgrade, April 18, 1922) was a Serbian writer, politician, scholar and Nobel Peace Prize candidate. Biography Nikolajević was born in Raduša (Ub), Raduša near Ub, Serbia ...

, founder *

Kosta Šumenković Kosta Šumenković ( Borovac, then under the Ottoman Empire, 1829 - Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 1905) was a merchant, Serbian national worker and volunteer in the Serbian-Turkish wars of 1876-1878 and the Serbian-Bulgarian War. He was the fou ...

, founder *

Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski - "Stari Bard" (Srbobran, Habsburg Empire, 19 December 1828 - Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 4 May 1890) was a popular Serbian poet of the second half of the 19th century at the most turbulent time in Europe during the ...

, founder * Milan Đ. Milićević, founder *

Ljubomir Kovačević Ljubomir Kovačević (4 January 1848 – 19 November 1918) was a Serbian writer, historian, academic, and politician. He is one of the early creators of the Serbian critical historiographical school and fighters for the separation of historical ...

, founder *

Panta Srećković Pantelija Srećković ( sr-Cyrl, Пантелија Срећковић; 3 November 1834 – 8 July 1903), also known as Panta Srećković (Панта Срећковић) was a Serbian historian and academician, the dean of the Grandes écoles (''V ...

, founder * Miloš Milojević, founder * Milojko Veselinović, founder *

Firmilijan Drazic Firmilijan Dražić (secular name Dimitrije Dražić; Serbian Cyrillic: Фирмилијан Дражић; Šabac, Principality of Serbia, 20 August 1852 - Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 7 December 1903) was the Metropolitan of Skopje, from 1902 t ...

, founder ;Others *

Temko Popov Temko Popov ( Macedonian: Темко Попов) was a pro-Macedonian activist and Serbian national worker in the Ottoman Empire. He espoused in his youth, according to Bulgarian sources, developed a kind of Macedonian pro-Serbian identity. Per Se ...

Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević ( sr-cyr, Јован Хаџи-Васиљевић, 18 October 1866 – 29 March 1948) was a Serbian historian, ethnographer, journalist and writer. Biography Hadži-Vasiljević was born in Vranje, at the time part of the ...

, secretary, editor of ''Brastvo'' * Spasoje Hadži Popović * Damjan Grujević * Petar Poparsov

Legacy

In 1994, an association with the same name was founded by 80 university professors.

References

Sources

*Народна енциклопедија српско-хрватско-словеначка, Београд 1929, књига 1, 575

External links

* {{Authority control Serbian cultural organizations Serbian irredentism Kingdom of Serbia Ottoman Serbia Ottoman period in the history of North Macedonia 19th century in Serbia 1886 establishments in Serbia Serbian nationalism Kosovo Serbs Serbs of North Macedonia Kosovo vilayet Manastir vilayet Salonica vilayet Yugoslav Macedonia Anti-Bulgarian sentiment Serb organizations Ethnic organizations based in Yugoslavia Defunct organizations based in Serbia Serbian nationalism in North Macedonia