Equal-to-the-Apostles Sava of Ohrid (one of the Sedmochislenniki)

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Sava of Ohrid was a Slavic priest, disciple, and co-laborer of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and one of the "Sedmochislenniki" — the Seven Saints who enlightened the Slavic peoples (Cyril, Methodius, and their five closest disciples: Clement, Naum, Gorazd, Angelar, and Sava). Together with his teachers, he labored in the ninth century to establish Slavonic liturgy and literacy in Great Moravia. After the repose of St. Methodius in 885, the Latin-German clergy launched a fierce persecution of his disciples: some were sold into slavery to Jewish slave-traders and ended up in the Venetian market, while others were expelled from the country. Sava's exact fate during this period is not recorded — sources note only that the place of his refuge remains unknown. Like the other disciples of Methodius, he eventually reached Bulgaria, where under Prince Boris he continued to labor for Slavonic worship, earning the epithet "Bulgarian scribe." No separate vita of St. Sava survives; what is known of him comes chiefly from the life of St. Clement of Ohrid. The Church commemorates St. Sava, equal-to-the-apostles, together with the Synaxis of the Seven Saints on July 27 (Old Style) / August 9 (New Style).