Nikanor of Hilandar (d. 1990)

Nikanor of Hilandar (d. 1990), born on 13 August 1903 in the village of Divci near Valjevo in Serbia, with the secular name Nikola Savic, of pious and simple parents, came to Hilandar on 17 August 1927 and was tonsured a monk on 15 September 1929. He was elected superior of the monastery on 31 December 1941; in 1963 he was Protepistates of the Holy Mountain, and for many years steward and representative of the monastery in the Holy Community. He himself worked in the monastery's vineyards, hazel groves and chestnut groves.

Elder Mitrophanes of Hilandar (d. 1999) used to say with feeling that he was a very serious and distinguished man, deeply spiritual and full of compunction, with great love for all. Though he had completed only the first grade, he read much into deep old age; he loved books and authors and helped the researchers who came to the monastery. He entered the church first and left last; nearly seven hours a day he was a luminous pillar in the katholikon. In the communist era he went to his homeland to awaken sleeping Christians; he gave his small property to repair his village church. He loved Hilandar, the Mountain, Greece and monasticism, and was merciful, serious, prudent, discerning and sincere.

Death found him in a high service: he had been sent by the Serbian Patriarchate to far Australia to reconcile two communities there. He reposed on 19 February 1990, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and was buried the next day at the Saint Sava monastery there. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.