Hieromartyr Sava (Trlajic),
Bishop of Gornji Karlovac

Bishop Sava (baptismal name Svetozar), the son of Stefan and Jelisaveta (maiden name Karakasevic), was born in Mol on July 19, 1884. He completed primary school in his hometown, Grammar school in Novi Sad, and the Seminary in Sremski Karlovci. Sava graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, and passed the qualifying examination for judges at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb.

Timisoara Bishop ordained him deacon on 19 and presbyter on 29 date of the same month. As parish priest he performed his duties in Peska and Basaid. At the beginning of 1927, he was elected officer and later main secretary of the Holy Synod of Bishops. Being a widower, he took monastic vows on October 27, 1929 in the Krusedol Monastery. Soon afterwards he became protosyncellos and archimandrite, and was appointed the head of the Krusedol Monastery. On September 30, 1934, Sava was elected the Auxiliary Bishop of Srem. Patriarch Varnava ordained him, accompanied with Timok Bishop Emilijan, Nis Bishop Jovan, Zahumlje-Herzegovina Bishop Tihon and Zletovo-Strumica Bishop Simeon, in Sremski Karlovci. He was elected the Bishop of Gornji Karlovac on June 22, 1938. After the death of Pakrac Bishop Miron (1941), he was an administrator of Pakrac Diocese.

At the beginning of World War II, in 1941, he refused a proposal - given to him by the Italian occupational forces - to leave the Diocese and go to Belgrade. He was arrested on July 17, 1941, and confined, together with three other Serbian priests and thirteen eminent Serbs, into a stable of an Ustasa Josip Tomljenovic in Plasko. After awful tortures, the Ustase chained Bishop Sava and the priests Bogoljub Gakovic, Djuro Stojanovic and Stanislav Nasadilo, and took them to Gospic on July 19. They were tortured there till the middle of August, when Bishop Sava was taken, together with 2000 Serbs in the direction of Velebit Mountain. Somewhere on this mountain he drained the cup of martyr death together with thousands of the Orthodox Serbs. The site where Bishop Platon died is still unknown.

At the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in 1998, Bishop Sava was canonised and entered into the List of the Names of the Serbian Church Saints as hieromartyr.