Early Life and Entry to Hilandar
Nikanor was born Nikola Savic on August 13, 1903, in the village of Divci, near Valjevo in Serbia, into a devout family of modest means. On August 17, 1927, he arrived at the Holy Monastery of Hilandar, the Serbian monastery on Mount Athos, and on September 15, 1929, he was tonsured a monk and received the name Nikanor.
He remained at Hilandar for the rest of his long life, more than sixty years in all. Alongside the monastic offices he would later hold, he is recorded as having labored in the vineyards and chestnut groves of the monastery, and as being devoted to the services of the church, by tradition the first to enter the temple each day and the last to leave.
Abbacy and Service on the Holy Mountain
Nikanor was elected abbot of Hilandar on December 31, 1941. In the decades that followed he became a respected figure across Mount Athos, and in 1963 he served as the First Administrator of the Holy Mountain, the office of Protos, also acting as commissioner and representative for his monastery. Serbian sources record that he served as archimandrite and pro-hegumen of Hilandar through to 1990.
He is credited with renewing several of Hilandar's dependent properties (metochia) and with promoting publishing within Hilandar and the Serbian Church more broadly, as well as with securing scholarships for students, seminarians, and theologians. Within the monastery he was known for receiving and reconciling estranged brethren, a ministry he also carried beyond the Holy Mountain on missionary journeys.
Mission to Australia and Repose
During the period of communist rule in Yugoslavia, Nikanor traveled to his homeland to encourage the faithful and contributed funds toward the repair of his village church. His final journey came in January 1990, when, in his eighty-eighth year and reportedly in poor health, he set out for Australia on a mission to reconcile divided Serbian Orthodox communities there.
He died in Sydney on February 19, 1990, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. According to his wish he was buried at the Monastery of Saint Sava at Elaine, in the church of Saint Alimpije (Alipy) the Stylite. Orthodox sources note that, as of the early 2010s, he was regarded as the first glorified saint connected with Australia.
Glorification and Commemoration
Saint Nikanor was glorified by the Serbian Orthodox Church around 2010; a precise glorification act and date are not established in the available sources. He is commemorated on February 19 according to the Old Calendar, corresponding to March 4 on the civil calendar.
