Martyr Sabbas (+372)

The holy Martyr Sabbas (+372) was a Goth by origin. He was converted to Christianity by Bishop Ulfilas, who preached among the Goths in the fourth century.

After his baptism Saint Sabbas boldly preached Christianity.

Under the influence of the pagan priests the Gothic princes and judges began to persecute the Christians and forced them to eat meat offered to idols. Many pagans sympathised with their Christian relatives and friends, and gave them ordinary meat instead of meat offered to idols. Saint Sabbas would not consent to such a deception to save his life, and declared that a Christian must confess his faith openly. Angered by the saint’s firmness, his fellow villagers drove him out of the village, but later they repented and asked him to come back. When the persecution of Christians grew fiercer, Sabbas’s fellow villagers decided to go to the tribunal and declare on oath that there was not a single Christian among them. Saint Sabbas said aloud: “Do not take an oath on my behalf, for I am a Christian.” The villagers went and declared that there was only one Christian among them. The judge demanded that the saint be brought to him, but when he saw his poverty he did not consider him a dangerous enemy and let him go.

The persecution went on. On the feast of Holy Pascha one of the Gothic commanders, Atharid, attacked Sabbas’s village. Saint Sabbas was to have spent the feast with Bishop Guthicus, but an angel of the Lord turned him back from the road and ordered him to stay in the village. At that time the presbyter Sansalas too returned from Greece. The soldiers seized Sansalas and Sabbas; they put the presbyter on a cart, while Saint Sabbas was driven along with blows of sticks and dragged through thorns and brambles. The Lord protected the saint: in the morning, when they reached the town, he said to the soldiers: “Look at my body: do you see on it any marks of the thorns or the sticks?” The guards stared in amazement at the unharmed martyr. Embittered by this miracle, they tied Saint Sabbas to the cart and beat him mercilessly. The next day, by Atharid’s order, Sabbas and Sansalas were ordered to eat meat offered to idols. Sansalas answered: “We would sooner consent to be crucified than eat meat defiled by demons.” Saint Sabbas asked: “Who sent the meat?” “The lord Atharid,” the servant answered. “There is no lord but God, the Father in heaven,” said the martyr. One enraged servant drove a spear into the saint’s chest. Everyone thought that Saint Sabbas was dead, but he did not even feel any pain.

Atharid ordered Saint Sabbas to be put to death. He was taken to a river. On the way the saint, ready for death, gave thanks aloud to the Lord for being pleased to grant him the crown of martyrdom.

The servants offered to set Sabbas free, but the martyr refused: “Do what you have been ordered. I see the angels who are to receive my soul.” The saint was drowned in the river.

Saint Sabbas met his end on 12 April 372, at the age of thirty-eight. The executioners took his body out of the water and threw it on the bank. The Christians buried the holy remains with honour. Later the Gothic prince Junius Soranus translated Saint Sabbas’s relics to Cappadocia.