Saint Sabbas, Abbot
S. Sabbae Abbatis
Saint Sabbas was one of the great fathers of monastic life in the Holy Land, a fifth-century abbot whose monastery near Jerusalem endures to this day.
Saint Sabbas was born in Cappadocia about the year 439 and entered the monastic life while still a boy. Drawn to the desert of Palestine, he placed himself for many years under the guidance of Saint Euthymius the Great, and after a long apprenticeship in solitude and obedience he became one of the most renowned abbots of the Christian East.
Father of monks
In the wilderness southeast of Jerusalem, in the valley of the Kidron, Saint Sabbas gathered a great community of monks. The monastery he founded, known to later ages as the Great Laura and still called Mar Saba, became a school of prayer and penance from which many holy men went forth. So widely was his wisdom esteemed that the Patriarch of Jerusalem appointed him to govern the hermits scattered throughout the region.
Saint Sabbas lived in an age troubled by disputes over the true faith concerning the Person of Christ. He stood firmly for the doctrine handed down by the Church and the Council of Chalcedon, and more than once he journeyed to the imperial court at Constantinople to plead for the orthodox faith and for the peace of the Holy Land. He died in his monastery in the year 532, full of years and holiness.
His witness today
The liturgical tradition of the East owes much to the monastery of Saint Sabbas, where the ordering of the sacred offices was carefully cultivated and preserved. The Church keeps his memory on the fifth of December, in the season of Advent, holding up before the faithful a life wholly given to God in the desert. In him we venerate the enduring vocation of monks, who by prayer and self-denial intercede for the whole Church.
The Collect
May the intercession of blessed Sabbas the Abbot commend us, we beseech thee, O Lord; that what we cannot obtain by our own merits, we may receive through his patronage.
Intercéssio nos, quæsumus, Dómine, beáti Sabbæ Abbátis comméndet: ut, quod nostris méritis non valémus, ejus patrocínio assequámur.
Patronage
He is honoured as one of the founders of monasticism in the Holy Land, and his monastery near Jerusalem, Mar Saba, continues to bear his name.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 5 December as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Sabbas?
His feast is kept on 5 December in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Fourth Class feast during Advent.
Who was Saint Sabbas?
He was a fifth-century abbot of Cappadocian birth who became one of the great fathers of monastic life in the desert near Jerusalem. He founded the famous monastery still known as Mar Saba and defended the orthodox faith concerning the Person of Christ.
What is Mar Saba?
Mar Saba is the monastery Saint Sabbas founded in the valley of the Kidron southeast of Jerusalem, known anciently as the Great Laura. It has been continuously inhabited by monks for some fifteen centuries and remains a centre of prayer to this day.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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