Only Unity Saves the Serbs

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Flag of the Serbian Orthodox Church

"Only Unity Saves the Serbs"

"Само слога Србина спашава"

"Samo sloga Srbina spašava"

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

It is a popular belief that the phrase is displayed on the Serbian cross on the Serbian national coat of arms, in the form of four C-shaped firesteels (Serbian: "ocila", "оцила"), which form an acronym of four Cyrillic letters for 'S' (с). However, this symbol might in fact be a sort of a copy of Byzantine coat of arms where stylized Greek letters Β stood for the imperial motto Basileus Basileon Basileuon Basileusin ("King of kings, ruling over kings") in Greek.

The motto was used in Shields of Soldiers and Despots in the early 14th century.^[1]

Another popular story has it that this phrase originated in the 12th century with St. Sava, the Serbian 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 Rome to convert from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. According to the story St. Sava called for the creation of an independent church in Serbia that would remain Orthodox, and uttered the "ocila" phrase to urge the Serbian people to declare national autonomy and resist domination by the Roman Catholic Church.