Only Unity Saves the Serbs

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Flag of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Only Unity Saves the Serbs or Serb Unity the Only Survival (Serbian: Само слога Србина спасава/Samo sloga Srbina spasava) is Serbia's motto and a popular slogan of the Serbian people, also used as a cry against foreign domination and national disunity.

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). The origin of this symbol is of the 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.

A monument in Samac, Republika Srpska, for the Serbs who fought and died in the Bosnian war, has the Serbian eagle in the center, the years which the war occurred (1992-1995) and the Serbian slogan: "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava" on the left and right sides.^[2]