BELGRADE, Serbia — More than a million people traveled to St. Sava Church in recent weeks to witness a sacred relic of the Virgin Mary, a piece of the belt she wore when she was pregnant with Jesus Christ.
The belt, on display 24/7 for the past few weeks, arrived by plane from Mount Athos in Greece, where it is normally kept; For the first time in centuries the relic was returned to Serbia.
Holy belt relic of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
VIDEO: Thousands of people line up to see the sacred relic of the Virgin Mary’s belt at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia:
Orthodox Church officials, according to a Serbian government official, formally estimated that more than 1.1 million people visited the Church of Saint Sava during the display of the relic, considered one of the most sacred in Christianity.
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
“She made it by hand and used it when she was pregnant with baby Jesus,” Nemanja Stavorich, Serbian Minister of European Integration, told Breitbart News during a tour of St. Sava Church.
“It is a very special occasion for us because for 650 years, this belt was not in Serbia,” said Bozidar Lijeskic, a Church official who gave Breitbart News a tour of St. Sava Church. “In fact, it is one of the most sacred, precious and revered possessions on all of Mount Athos.”
Exterior of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
Breitbart News also visited the church during our trip to Belgrade to interview President Aleksandar Vucic, an interview that caught the attention of US President Donald Trump. Vucic praised Trump during the interview, saying that because he is “pragmatic” and “rational,” Trump is by far the most popular American politician in Serbia, and the president published that article in Truth Social.
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
Immediately after interviewing Vucic, Serbian officials took Breitbart News on a private tour of the Church of Saint Sava, and we were able to see the relic of the Virgin Mary during the tour. The church itself is magnificent and was built by the Serbs over more than a century as a way to replace Hagia Sophia, the spectacular Istanbul church that was converted into a mosque when the Muslims conquered what is now Turkey during the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
The tall entrance doors of the church are engraved in 24 different languages of welcome prayers. “Basically, for every person who comes from anywhere in the world and comes to the church, the first thing they will feel and also notice is prayer, whether in their own language or in a language they can understand,” Lijeskic told Breitbart News as he began the tour outside the church. “You get an immediate feeling of warmth when you walk in.”
Lijeskic said that Saint Sava, after whom the Church is named, “is, for the Serbian people, one of the most important and revered saints of our spiritual heritage.”
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
“He was born in 1175 into a Serbian royal family; his father was a great unifier and I would say a great duke of Serbia,” Lijeskic said. “When I say unifier, I mean that he unified the Serbian territories and municipalities that formed one state of Serbia. Saint Sava, who was his third and youngest son, was not so devout as to be a royalty or prince or whatever. But he was very devout and interested in the Church and Christianity. So when he was 17, he decided to follow some Russian Orthodox monks who were traveling through Serbia and heading towards Mount Athos in Greece. At the time He found himself there, decided to become an Orthodox monk, and as you know, that’s officially leaving any opportunity for the Crown, any opportunity for royalty, as well as your personal family and any kind of wealth. “So he stayed there and started learning about this deep spirituality and life, and miraculously, his father joined him several years after that, so he renounced the throne of Serbia, walked away from the throne of Serbia and gave it to his middle son, and started following his youngest son and became a monk.”
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
When Saint Sava’s father died, Lijeskic said the situation in Serbia “started to collide in a bit unpleasant way.” Since Saint Sava’s father had handed over control of the kingdom to the middle brother instead of the eldest brother, the nation almost fell into civil war, but Saint Sava returned to Serbia with his father’s relics and made peace between his older brothers. “The second son who was given the leadership of Serbia actually became the first king of Serbia,” Lijeskic said. “And during Saint Sava’s stay in Serbia, he began to build hospitals and schools, the first educational institutions, as well as churches and monasteries. He basically put Serbia’s educational system on the map of the known world. That is why he is now considered the greatest enlightener of the Serbian people, the great educator of the Serbian people.”
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
In 1219, Lijeskic added, Saint Sava made the Serbian church independent of Constantinople and “became the first archbishop of the Serbian church.”
“So, to summarize the whole story of Saint Sava’s life and why he is so important to our Serbian people, for us to dedicate this tremendous church to him, it is because he is the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the first Serbian archbishop,” Lijeskic said.
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
Construction of the church, the fourth largest Orthodox church in the world, began in 1935 and took decades (until 2004 for the exterior and until 2020 for the interior) to complete. Construction stopped and started at different times in history, especially during communist-era Yugoslavia, but now features what Lijeskic told Breitbart News during the tour is the world’s largest work of art, a series of mosaic images throughout the building’s interior.
Mosaic in the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
Mosaic in the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 23, 2026. (Jon Kahn/Breitbart News)
“This is the largest piece of mosaic art in the world,” Lijeskic said. “It is placed on an area of over 17,000 square meters, and if you are wondering if this is real gold, it is. It is 24 karat gold placed between two layers of glass. The rest of the representations of the saints, parables and biblical stories are made of natural colors of stone, marble, glass, all different types of minerals. For example, the black ones are made of volcanic glass (obsidian) and the Byzantine blue, It is made of lapis lazuli. Miraculously, the mosaic was also made in just five years. We started the project in 2012, but it took the artists two years to take the measurements and do all the logistics.
In total, the mosaics include millions of pieces of gold and stones throughout the church and form images of Jesus Christ and various Orthodox saints and biblical figures.
