St. Sabas the Goth
Feast day: April 12
Birth: 334
Death: 372
Also Sabbas the Goth, a martyr in the area of modern Romania. He was a Goth converted to Christianity in his youth and became a lector in Targoviste, Romania, to a priest named Sansala.
The account of the martyrdom of Saint Sabas was recorded in a letter soon after his death at the hands of a Gothic ruler north of the Danube. Saint Jerome tells us that King Athanaric of the Goths began persecuting Christians in his tribe about 370. Sabas, converted to Christianity in his youth, was lector to the priest Sansala, apparently at Targoviste in modern Romania.
We are told that Sabas exemplified the Christian virtues of obedience and humility, and that he loved to sing the divine praises in church and decorate the altar. His desire for chastity was so great that he refrained from even speaking to women unless it was absolutely necessary. Most of all, Sabas loved the truth.
Sabas denounced the practice of some Christians of pretending to eat meat offered to pagan gods though in reality it had not been sacrificed to the gods by arrangement with some officers. He said that they had renounced the faith by their pretense. For this, he was forced into exile but later was allowed to return.
During another persecution the following year, some Christians swore that there were no Christians among them. Sabas loudly proclaimed his Christianity. After his first arrest, he was released as an insignificant fellow, owning nothing but the clothes on his back, 'who can do us neither good nor harm.'
Just before Easter 372, the persecution was renewed. Atharidus and his troops broke into the lodgings of the sleeping Sansala, bound him, and threw him on a cart. They pulled Sabas out of bed without allowing him to dress and dragged the modest saint naked over thorns and briars, forcing him along with whips and staves. At daybreak Sabas said to his persecutors: "Have not you dragged me, quite naked, over rough and thorny grounds? Observe whether my feet are wounded, or whether the blows you gave me have made any impression on my body." His body bore no bruises or abrasions, which enraged his tormentors, causing them to rack him on a make- shift devise.
Sabas refused an opportunity to escape when the mistress of the house in which they were lodged overnight, untied him. He spent the rest of the night helping the woman to dress victuals for the family.
The next day he was hung upon a beam of the house, and offered and refused meats that had been sacrificed to idols. One of Atharidus's slaves struck the point of his javelin against the saint's breast with such violence that all present believed Sabas had been killed. But he was unharmed. At this, Atharidus declared that Sansala should be dismissed, but Sabas must be drowned.
On the banks of the river, the officers wanted to let him go. Overhearing them, Sabas asked why they were so dilatory in obeying their orders? Then he continued, "I see what you cannot: I see persons on the other side of the river ready to receive my soul, and conduct it to the seat of glory: they only wait the moment in which it will leave my body."
Thereupon he was tied to a pole and held down in the Buzau (Mussovo) River until he was dead; 'This death by wood and water,' says the correspondent, 'was an exact symbol of man's salvation,' i.e., symbols of baptism and the cross. When he was dead, they drew his body out of the water, and left it unburied: but the Christians of the place guarded it from birds and beasts of prey.
Junius Soranus, duke of Scythia, a man who feared God, sent the body to Cappadocia. A letter was sent with these relics from the church of Gothia to that of Cappadocia governed by Saint Basil, which contains an account of the martyrdom of Sabas, and concludes thus: "Wherefore offering up the holy sacrifice on the day whereon the martyr was crowned, impart this to our brethren, that the Lord may be praised throughout the Catholic and Apostolic Church for thus glorifying his servants."
About 50 other Christians were martyred during this same persecution and are honored today
Feast day: April 12
Birth: 334
Death: 372
Also Sabbas the Goth, a martyr in the area of modern Romania. He was a Goth converted to Christianity in his youth and became a lector in Targoviste, Romania, to a priest named Sansala.
The account of the martyrdom of Saint Sabas was recorded in a letter soon after his death at the hands of a Gothic ruler north of the Danube. Saint Jerome tells us that King Athanaric of the Goths began persecuting Christians in his tribe about 370. Sabas, converted to Christianity in his youth, was lector to the priest Sansala, apparently at Targoviste in modern Romania.
We are told that Sabas exemplified the Christian virtues of obedience and humility, and that he loved to sing the divine praises in church and decorate the altar. His desire for chastity was so great that he refrained from even speaking to women unless it was absolutely necessary. Most of all, Sabas loved the truth.
Sabas denounced the practice of some Christians of pretending to eat meat offered to pagan gods though in reality it had not been sacrificed to the gods by arrangement with some officers. He said that they had renounced the faith by their pretense. For this, he was forced into exile but later was allowed to return.
During another persecution the following year, some Christians swore that there were no Christians among them. Sabas loudly proclaimed his Christianity. After his first arrest, he was released as an insignificant fellow, owning nothing but the clothes on his back, 'who can do us neither good nor harm.'
Just before Easter 372, the persecution was renewed. Atharidus and his troops broke into the lodgings of the sleeping Sansala, bound him, and threw him on a cart. They pulled Sabas out of bed without allowing him to dress and dragged the modest saint naked over thorns and briars, forcing him along with whips and staves. At daybreak Sabas said to his persecutors: "Have not you dragged me, quite naked, over rough and thorny grounds? Observe whether my feet are wounded, or whether the blows you gave me have made any impression on my body." His body bore no bruises or abrasions, which enraged his tormentors, causing them to rack him on a make- shift devise.
Sabas refused an opportunity to escape when the mistress of the house in which they were lodged overnight, untied him. He spent the rest of the night helping the woman to dress victuals for the family.
The next day he was hung upon a beam of the house, and offered and refused meats that had been sacrificed to idols. One of Atharidus's slaves struck the point of his javelin against the saint's breast with such violence that all present believed Sabas had been killed. But he was unharmed. At this, Atharidus declared that Sansala should be dismissed, but Sabas must be drowned.
On the banks of the river, the officers wanted to let him go. Overhearing them, Sabas asked why they were so dilatory in obeying their orders? Then he continued, "I see what you cannot: I see persons on the other side of the river ready to receive my soul, and conduct it to the seat of glory: they only wait the moment in which it will leave my body."
Thereupon he was tied to a pole and held down in the Buzau (Mussovo) River until he was dead; 'This death by wood and water,' says the correspondent, 'was an exact symbol of man's salvation,' i.e., symbols of baptism and the cross. When he was dead, they drew his body out of the water, and left it unburied: but the Christians of the place guarded it from birds and beasts of prey.
Junius Soranus, duke of Scythia, a man who feared God, sent the body to Cappadocia. A letter was sent with these relics from the church of Gothia to that of Cappadocia governed by Saint Basil, which contains an account of the martyrdom of Sabas, and concludes thus: "Wherefore offering up the holy sacrifice on the day whereon the martyr was crowned, impart this to our brethren, that the Lord may be praised throughout the Catholic and Apostolic Church for thus glorifying his servants."
About 50 other Christians were martyred during this same persecution and are honored today
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