Burning of Saint Sava's relics

When the Serbs in Banat rose up against the Ottomans in 1594, using the portrait of Saint Sava on their war flags, the Ottomans retaliated by incinerating the relics of St. Sava on the Vračar plateau in Belgrade.^[1] Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha, the main commander of the Ottoman army, ordered that the relics be brought from Mileševa to Belgrade, where he had them burned on 27 April.^[2] Monk Nićifor of the Fenek monastery wrote that "there was great violence carried out against the clergy and devastation of monasteries".^[1] The Ottomans sought to symbolically and really incinerate the Serb determination to be free, a determination which had been growing noticeably.^[2] Instead, the burning sparked an increase in rebel activity, until the suppression of the uprising in 1595.^[2] It is believed that his left hand was saved; it is currently held at Mileševa.