Nomocanon in the context of "Ecclesiastical law"

Saint Sava (Serbian Cyrillic: Свети Сава, romanized: Sveti Sava, Serbian pronunciation: [sʋɛ̂ːtiː sǎːʋa]; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1235), known as the Enlightener or the Illuminator, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk who became the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church. He was also a writer, diplomat, and the founder of Serbian law.

Sava, born as Rastko Nemanjić (Serbian Cyrillic: Растко Немањић), was the youngest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja (founder of the Nemanjić dynasty), and ruled the appanage of Zachlumia briefly in 1190–92. He then left for Mount Athos, where he became a monk and took the monastic name Sava (Sabbas). At Athos he established the monastery of Hilandar, which became one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Serbian people. In 1219, the Patriarchate exiled in Nicea recognized him as the first Serbian Archbishop, and in the same year, he authored the oldest known constitution of Serbia, the Zakonopravilo nomocanon, thus securing full religious and political independence. Sava is regarded as the greatest figure of Serbian medieval literature and author of the first Serbian "biography". Specifically, he wrote the life of his father, the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja.

Photios I of Constantinople (Greek: Φώτιος, Phōtios; c. 815—6 February 893), also spelled Photius (/ˈfoʊʃəs/), was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886. He is recognized in the Eastern Orthodox Church as 'Saint Photius the Great'.

Photios I is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential church leader of Constantinople subsequent to John Chrysostom's archbishopric around the turn of the fifth century. He is also viewed as the most important intellectual of his time—"the leading light of the ninth-century renaissance". He was a central figure in both the conversion of the Slavs to Christianity and the Photian schism, and is considered "[t]he great systematic compiler of the Eastern Church, who occupies a similar position to that of Gratian in the West," and whose "collection in two parts... formed and still forms the classic source of ancient Church Law for the Greek Church".

The Zakonopravilo (Nomocanon of Saint Sava, Serbian Cyrillic: Номоканон светог Савеm, Законоправило or Krmčija (Крмчија)) was the highest code in the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was finished in 1219. This legal act was written in simple language. Its basic purpose was to organize the continuation and functioning of the Serbian Kingdom and the Serbian Church. It was originally printed under the name Rules of Speech (Правила Говора) in Serbian at Raška, Serbia, in two successive issues, one for Wallachia and another for Transylvania (in 1640). It is Serbia's first Serbian-language church-state constitution.