Sabbas the Sanctified

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the fifth-century monk who established the Monastery of Saint Sabbas. For the fourth-century Goth saint persecuted by Athanaric, see Sabbas the Goth.
paterissa
(abbot's staff)

Sabas

Imperial Aramaic: סַבָּא Sabbāʾ "old man".[5]

Life

Early life

St Sabbas was born the son of John, a military commander, and Sophia, at

Caesarea of Cappadocia
. The name of the village has no known meaning in Greek, but the Aramaic "Mata la zkha" translates as "Village of Victory".

Journeying to Alexandria on military matters, his parents left their five-year-old son in the care of an uncle. When the boy reached eight years of age, he entered the nearby monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch. The gifted child quickly learned to read and became an expert on the Holy Scriptures. Sabbas resisted his parents' pressure to return to the world and enter into marriage. When he was 17 years old he received monastic tonsure and subsequently spent ten years at the monastery of Bishop Flavian.

Holy Land: apprenticeship

After that, Sabbas went to

cenobitic
rule. Sabbas lived in obedience at this monastery until the age of thirty.

After the death of the Elder Theoctistus, his successor blessed Sabbas to seclude himself in a cave. On Saturdays, however, he left his hermitage and came to the monastery, where he participated in divine services and ate with the brethren. After a certain time Sabbas received permission not to leave his hermitage at all, and he lived in isolation in the cave for five years.

Euthymius attentively directed the life of the young monk, and seeing his spiritual maturity, he began to take him to the wilderness with him. They set out each January 14 and remained there until Palm Sunday. Euthymius called Sabbas a child-elder, and encouraged him to grow in the monastic virtues.

Hermit, founder of monasteries, Church leader

When Euthymius died (c. 473), Sabbas withdrew from the

eremitical
one, each in his own hut within the precincts of the lavra, attending only the solemn church services.

As a supporter of the

Anastasios I at Constantinople in 511 and on Justinian I in 531.[6]

Sabbas founded several more monasteries. It is claimed that many miracles took place through the prayers of Sabbas: at the lavra a spring of water welled up, during a time of drought they received abundant rain, and there were also healings of the sick and the possessed.

Patriarch Salustius of Jerusalem ordained him in 491 and appointed him archimandrite of all the monasteries in Palaestina Prima in 494. Sabbas composed the first monastic rule of church services, the so-called Jerusalem Typikon, for guidance of all the Byzantine monasteries. He died in the year 532. His feast day is on 5 December.

Relics

relics of St. Sabbas in the Catholicon (main church) of Mar Saba monastery, West Bank
.

Sabbas's relics were taken by

Crusaders in the 12th century as a result of the War of Saint Sabas and remained in Italy in the Church of Saint Anthony in Venice,[7] until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of good will towards the Orthodox
.

Vita and scholarship

Sabbas's Life was written by his disciple

Pierre Helyot, Histoire des ordres religieux (1714), i.C.16, and Max Heimbucher [de
], Orden u. Kongregationen (1907), i, §10.

Legacy

His Great Lavra long continued to be the most influential monastery in those parts, and produced several distinguished monks, among them

San Saba in Rome
is dedicated to him.

The

Walnuts").[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Patrich (1995).
  2. ^ "Saint Sabas: Saint of the Day for December 5". Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media. 5 December 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  3. ISBN 978-0-8264-2393-1
    .
  4. ^ Speake (2021).
  5. ^ "Sabas". Origin of names.
  6. ^ "St. Sabbas". Catholic Encyclopedia.
  7. ^ Cf. Speake (2021): "Venetian churches were dedicated to Greek saints and were enriched with Greek relics, such as those of St Sabas, St Donatus, and St Nicholas of Myra."
  8. ^ San Saba River from the Handbook of Texas Online

Bibliography

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Sabbas
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