Only Unity Saves the Serbs - Definition and Overview

Only Unity Saves the Serbs

Само слога Србина спашава

Samo sloga Srbina spašava

This is an historically significant phrase of the Serbian people as a cry against foreign domination and national disunity.

It is a popular belief that the phrase is displayed upon the Serbian national coat of arms as an acronym of four Cyrillic letters for 's' (с).

Popular story has it that this phrase originates in the 12th century with St. Sava, a Serb prince and monk, and later the patron saint of the Serbian Orthodox church. It was at this time that Serbs, who lacked a nationally established church, were under pressure from the Vatican to convert from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. St. Sava called for the creation of an independent church in Serbia that would remain Orthodox, and uttered the ocila to urge the Serbian people to declare national autonomy and resist domination by the Roman Catholic Church.