St. Sabas

From his Life "by Cyrillus, a faithfu.. cotempcrary

Writer.

SABAS, or Sabbas, was born at Mutalascus, a smaJl town in the district of Cesarea, in Cappadocia, anno 437. His father, who was an officer in the army, being obliged to go to Alexandria, in Egypt, left his son, who was then but five years old, together with his estate, in the care of an uncle, whose name was Hermias. But the evil treatment Sabas met with from his aunt, the wife of Hermias, obliged him to leave them, and go to another uncle, named Gregory This produced a violent contest between the two orothers which should have the care of his person and of his estate, which inspired in the nephew, young as he then was, so great a disgust for the world, that resolving to quit it, he retired to a monastery called Flavian, at about three miles distance from Mutalascus, where the abbot received him, though as yet but a child, amongst his religious, and took care to have him well instructed in the knowledge of the boly Scriptures, and of all things necessary to acquit himself worthily of so holy a profession. Here, as he was working in the garden one day, he obser.ed an apple tree laden with fruit, which appeared so ..rf fair and tempting*, that he plucked off one of them with a design to eat it; but immediately suspecting it to be a snare of the old serpent, who had heretofore driven our first parents out of paradise, by tempting them to eat of the forbidden fruit, and that he throws out no baits so efficacious to ensnare youth as that of pleasure; after reproaching himself with the fault he had com mitted, he flung down the apple, trod it under foot, and made a resolution never to eat of that kind of fruit as long as he lived. From that day forward he led a life of the most extraordinary abstinence with respect to eating and drinking. As to sleep, he slept no longer than the necessity of nature absolutely re quired; and excepting the time whilst his hands were lifted up to God in prayer, they were perpetually employed in some manual labor, for he dreaded nothing more than idleness, on account of the opportunity it affords the enemy to creep insensibly into the soul. By this continual application of all his faculties to attain to perfection, he made such a progress in the way of virtue, that not one of the religious, who were to the number of seventy in this community, equalled him in obedience and humility, or in any of the exercises of an evangelical life.

His uncles, being at length reconciled together, both joined in soliciting him to come out of the monastery, and to settle himself h the world in a married life. But he resisted all their solicitations, and with the leave of his superior, being now eighteen years old, went away to Jerusalem, in order to reverence the holy places, and then to visit the Saints that inhabited the neighboring deserts, that he might acquire still greater proficiency in the true science of the saints. Here after a short stay in the monastery of St. Pasarion, lie went and flung himself at the feet of the great St. Euthymius, desiring to serve God under his holy discipline. Euthymius told him he was as yet too young for the solitary life of the laura, but sent him to the neighboring monastery of his friend Theoctistus, with a particular recommendation of him to the abbot, as one who was likely to become a most illustrious saint. In this monastery the young Sabas consecrated himself entirely to divine love. He spent the day in manual labors, and the night in fervent prayer, and was ever ready, young and strong as he was, to comfort and assist the brethren in their respective offices. He brought in water and wood for the use of the community: — regardless of his own health, he took particular care of the sick, and was ever the first and last at the divine office, which he always recited with a most edifying devotion: — in a word, the religious were so charmed with his obedience and humility, that they could not, without admiration, be hold so great perfection in one of such tender years. It happened about this time that one of the monks obtained leave of the abbot to go to Alexandria, ia order to dispose of an inheritance that fell to him by the death of his parents. Sabas, being ordered to accompany him in this journey, unexpectedly met with his own father and mother, who lived at Alexandria, Having rejoiced excessively to see him, they endeavor ed, by the most pressing soliciation, to prevail on him to stay with them; but Sabas, having set his hand to the plough, absolutely refused to look back, remem-. bering what our Lord had said, that such as love father or mother more than him, are not worthy of him. "If they, said he, who, after enrolling themselves in the service of an earthly king run away from their colors, are severely punished for their desertion, what punishment then should not I deserve, if after having engaged myself in the service of the King of heaven, I should abandon so holy a warfare? Where fore cease, I beseech you, to persuade me to quit this way of life, which I mid so advantageous to my soul, or else you will oblige me to consider you no longer as my parents and friends, but as strangers and enemies." — They told him that if he would not stay with them, he would at least accept of a considerable sum of money, which they would have given him. But this he also refused, and it was with much difficulty that they prevailed upon him to receive three pieces of silver; which as soon as he returned to the monastery he immediately gave to the abbot, fearing nothing more than the demon of the love of money.

After the death of the holy abbot Theoctistus, with the approbation of St. Euthymius, he betook himself to a cavern belonging to th3 monastery, where he passed five days of the week in perfect solitude; fasting, working, and praying the whole time. On the Saturday and Sunday he performed his devotions in the monastery, and then returning to his cavern, he carried with him the materials of which he made every week to the number of fifty baskets. And now St. Euthymius, who used to call him the young old man, by reason of his extraordinary wisdom, desired to have him nearer himself, and therefore took him along with him, when he entered upon his yearly re treat, on the 14th January, into the desert of Ruban, where he was accustomed to pass the holy time of Lent. After they had walked for a long time together over the barren sands of this vast » wilderness, where nothing green could grow, nor any water l>e found, Sabas was so much exhausted with weariness and thirst, that he could hold out no longer, but was obliged to lay himself upon the ground like one half dead. Euthymius pitying his distress, prostrated him self in the presence of God, and cried out from the bottom of his heart: " Thou seest, O my God, the extremity to which this thy young soldier, who fights under thy standard, is now reduced, be pleased there fore to relieve and assist him by causing water to issue forth out of this dry and shirsty land." Having finished this prayer, and thrust his staff three times into the ground, behold there presently issued forth a spring of clear and excellent water, from the drinking whereof Sabas not only quenched his thirst, but found in himself such vigor, strength, and comfort, as en abled him cheerfully to support all that ho had afterwards to suffer in the desert.

After the death of St. Euthyrnius, Sabas retired into the same wilderness near the river Jordan, which St. Gerasimus at that time illustrated with the rays of his sanctity. Here, according to custom, passing the night on a solitary mountain in prayer, he was directed by a heavenly vision to go and take up his abode in a cavern to the east of the torrent of Siloe, with a promise that God, who takes care of the meanest of his creatures, would not fail to provide for him. Hav ing immediately obeyed this ordinance of heaven, he went down from the mountain, and was led, as it were, by the hand to the cavern, which lay on the side of a steep hill, of very difficult access. Here he lived for some time, without any other food for his subsistence but the herbs that grew wild about his cave, and being obliged to go six or seven miles for water, which, with the utmost difficulty he carried up to his lodging by means of a rope, which he made to han<r down for that purpose from his cavern to the foot of the hill. But divine providence at length conducted Borne of the country people to the place, who ascend-

Ing by the help of the rope to the cavern, and admiring the sanctity of the servant of God, from that time forward furnished him with the little provisions he stood in need of.

After he had dwelt about rive years in this solitary cavern, God inspired him with a desire of exercising his charity towards his neighbors, by receiving, instructing, and directing as many as desired to quit the tvorld, and to put themselves under his guidance in the ways of God and religious perfection. To these he gave excellent lessons of a' spiritual life, and ap pointed them separated spots of ground for building their cells after the manner of a laura, which, in process of time, became the most considerable of any in all Palestine. He built them also a chapel, wherein, as often as any priest came into the wilderness, he procured that the divine mysteries should be celebrated; for as to his own part, his humility made him de cline the priestly dignity, of which he deemed himself altogether unworthy. The first disciples of the Saint were men of the most eminent virtue, so full of the Spirit of God, that they lived in the wilderness like angels in human bodies, continually employed in singing the praises of their Maker. Their number was bout three score and ten, amongst whom were several who afterwards became founders and superiors of other religious communities. Having at the beginning labored under great inconveniences, especially for want of water, which they were forced to fetch, as was observed before, from a spring that was seven miles distant, the Saint one night in his devotions, earnestly besought the Lord to remedy this evil, by affording his servants a source of water nearer home; when be hold at the conclusion of his prayer he heard a noise, and looking towards the place, he perceived by the moonlight a wild ass making a hole in the ground with his foot, and then bowing down his head, as if it were to drink. The man of God conceiving by this signal that his prayer was heard, went to the place, and opening thr hole a little wider, a stream of living water issued for h, which from that time never ceased to flow through the midst of the laura, in such a manner, as neither to be swelled in winter nor to be di minished in summer, though almost all the people of the country re»orted thither for water.

And no\v the number of those who came to place themselves under his direction increased exceedingly; — but, alas! they were not all led by the same spirit as their predecessor; on the contrary, some of them formed a faction against the holy abbot, and went to Salustius, who upon the death of Martyrius was lately made patriarch of Jerusalem, to desire he would give th3in anothe- superior: for as Sabas was clownish and simple, they wanted one who was a priest. The new patriarch, who was no stranger to the merit of the Baint, instead of regarding his accusers, sent for him and ordained him priest in their presence, and confirmed him in his charge of abbot and superior; and going with him to the laura consecrated for him a church, and erected an altar in a spacious subterraneous den, which had been shown to the man of God hy a pillar of fire which reached from heaven to earth. Many others after this resorted to the Saint to put themselves under his discipline, amongst whom ^ere several excellent men of the Armenian nation, to whom the man of God made over his own first habitation with the neighboring oratory, in which he directed them to sing the praises of God in their native language. About this time also the father of the Saint having died at Alexandria, his mother Sophia came to visit him, and having by his counsel entirely renounced the world, passed the short time that re mained of her life in preparing her soul, by spiritual exercises, for a better, and made a most happy end under his directions. The Saint consecrated a considerable sum of money which she bequeathed him, to the service of God, by building two hospitals; the one for the entertainment of passengers, the other for the religious of other communities who came to visit his laura.

Our Saint was united in a most holy bond of friend ship with the great St. Theodosius, and always joined nim in promoting the cause of their common Lord, as well in defending the purity of the catholic faith

ST. 8 ABAS.

against all the attacks of heresy, as in propagating re« ligious discipline. Their union was so remarkable, that the people of Jerusalem called them the two apostles; and the patriarch Salustius, at the desire of the religious of his district, put under their care all the monasteries around Jerusalem, in such a manner that Theodosius had the charge of all that lived in convents, from whence he was named the Cenobiarch, and Sabas the charge of all the anchorets and solitaries. But Euthymius was the Saint whose life St. Sabas particularly chose for the model of his own; after his example he withdrew himself every year into the most remote part of the wilderness, and there passed the whole time of Lent, till Palm-Sunday, in perfect solitude, fasting, and prayer. In one of these excursions he was conducted by divine providence to a steep mountain, on the top of which he found a cavern, and in this cavern a holy anchoret who had lived there for eight and thirty years upon nothing but wild herbs, without either seeing or being seen during all that time by any one. The edification he received by the heavenly conversation of this man of God brought Sabas thither again another year to receive his bene diction, but he found him dead in the posture of one at his prayers, and interred him in his cavern.

In another of these excursions he came to a hill called Castel, lying at a great distance from all communication with men. This place he pitched upon to erect a monastery, and after the Easter holidays he led thither a colony of his disciples, who found in the neighborhood an old desolate building, which they converted into a church, and afterwards built themselves cells around it. As the first inhabitants of this holy solitude were men of eminent virtue, wholly disengaged from all earthly cares and affections, our Lord was pleased in the beginning to provide for their subsistence in a wonderful manner, by charging Marcian, the superior of the monasteries of Bethlehem, in a vision, to furnish them with all necessaries, which he carefully executed.

In the mean time the malcontents of whom we Bpoke before were gathering strength, by seducing several others over to their faction, so that no less than forty of the religious entered into a conspiracy against the holy abbot, resolving to use all means in their power to get rid of him. The Saint being apprised of their design chose to withdraw himself quietly from them, rather than proceed to any measures against them which might be inconsistent with that meekness, patience, and humility, which constitute the character of a disciple of Jesus Christ. Wherefore retiring into a desert, not far from the city of Scythopolis, he took up his abode in a cavern near the river of Gadar. Al though this cavern happened to be a lion's den, yet the beast finding the Saint there, not only refrained from offering him any violence, but quietly yielded up to him the possession of his dwelling-place. Here the reputation of his sanctity, which could no where lie long concealed, brought many to visit him from the neighboring cities of Scythopolis and Gadara; amongst whom was a young gentleman named Basil, who by an inspiration of heaven had entirely renounced the world and came to dwell with Sabas in his cavern. Some thieves who had imagined Basil to be rich, and that he had carried off his money with him, came one night in hopes of booty to visit the cavern; but finding nothing, not even the necessaries of life, they were struck with astonishment, and retired, not without deep remorse for the evil they had proposed to commit, and a dread of meeting with some rigorous punishment from the justice of God. This apprehension was greatly increased, when a little after they had left the cavern they saw some lions approaching, whose terrible looks seemed to threaten them with immediate death and destruction. In this extremity they be thought themselves of the sanctity of Sabas, and com manded the lions in the name, and by virtue of the prayers of that venerable servant of God, to be gone; ^hen behold they had no sooner pronounced the name of Sabas, but these furious beasts turned their backs upon them and ran away. This miracle not only wrcught the total conversion of the thieves, but being rumored abroad, brought such multitudes to visit th* Saint as determined him, after having recommended his disciples to God and leaving to them the cell he had lately built, to seek some other solitude, where he might attend to his God with less distraction.

After some time he returned again to his laura, where to his excessive grief he found no amendment in the disposition of the malcontents, since whatsoever he could either say or do to bring them to a righ sense of their duty made them rather worse than better. Upon this he retired towards Nicopolis, and fixed his abode for some time under a tree in an open field, till the master of the field, admiring his sanctity, built him a cell, which in a short time was converted into a monastery. In the mean time the malcontents applied to Elias the patriarch of Jerusalem for another superior, pretending that Sabas was devoured by a lion. The patriarch gave no credit to the fable; and not long after Sabas himself coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the dedication of the Church, he obliged him to return to his laura, with an order to the rebels either to submit to him or depart. They chose the latter, and retired towards the torrent of Theon, and repaired some old cells which they found there, and called this place the new laura. But aa ithey were destitute of all things, and no one was willing to assist them, the Saint in his great charity, not only labored to procure them all necessary provisions, but went himself in person to carry them to them; oor did he cease to ply them with benefits, both for their temporal and spiritual well-being, till overcoming evil with good, he at length brought them over to dis positions more suitable to the sanctity of their profession, and established them in regular discipline under a holy superior whom he appointed for them.

It would be endless to descend to all the particulars of the great things which St. Sabas did, during the many years that remained of his life, for the glory of God, — for the sanctification of souls, — and the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, — the spirit of prophecy which he manifested on many occasions, — the great miracles God wrought by him, — his labors for the public good of the Church, and maintaining the purity of faith, as well during the reign of Anastasius, the Eutychian, as during that of his successors Justin and Justinian, since these would suffice to fill a volume, they are therefore omitted as exceeding the bounds of our intended brevity. Wherefore we shall only add, that as he always lived the life of a Saint, so he died the death of a Saint, on the fifth of December, (on which day he is honored by the church) anno 532, at the age of 94; and that after his death many miracles were wro ight through his intercession.