On the occasion of the celebration of Saint Sava Day, in the premises of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Presbyter Oliver Subotic delivered an unusual and interesting Saint Sava's sermon about the influence of Saint Sava’s ethics on the character and work of Nikola Tesla.

The influence of Saint Sava’s ethics on the character and work of Nikola Tesla

As the mission of his Saint Sava sermon, the speaker emphasised his desire to show the extent to which Tesla's value system was created under the influence of this saint’s legacy, who is the patron saint of Serbia.

Illuminating Tesla's character through the virtues that adorned him, father Oliver underlined selflessness, righteousness, knowledge and patriotism as the key ones.

Tesla learnt selflessness from his parents' home and showed it throughout his life, both in real life by helping the poor, and in scientific work, considering that the goal of scientific work is always the welfare of humanity, and money was only a means to perform his inventive work.

Saint Sava’s qualities of righteousness and the love of truth gave to Tesla, according to Oliver Subotic, the awareness that truth and justice always triumph sooner or later, which was especially useful to the scientist as a guide in the American period of his life, which was full of trials.

In the sermon, Tesla's virtue of acquiring knowledge is connected with the need to multiply talents, which the Gospel speaks about, and it was present in the inventor from his earliest childhood.

Oliver Subotic especially highlights the virtue of patriotism in Nikola Tesla, which is also rooted in holiness through love for one's neighbour, saying that although Tesla was a cosmopolitan, he still maintained a distinct Serbian identity throughout his life, always helping the Serbian people.

At the end of the sermon of Saint Sava, in order to accentuate the deep similarity between Saint Sava and Nikola Tesla, Oliver Subotic quotes a passage from his book Tesla: Duhovni lik (Tesla: The Spiritual Character), which says that both Serbs resisted the pressure of their fathers when it comes to their calling in life. Thus, Saint Sava became a monk instead of a ruler, and Nikola Tesla became an inventor instead of a priest, and both listened to the call of the heart (God) and this bore great fruit, because they always thought primarily about the well-being of others.

Read the article about the event on the official site of Matica Srpska.