Saba or Sabas (2a/3ac), the name of several saints of the Roman Catholic Church. See also Sabbas.
1. A Gothic soldier who was martyred at Rome with 170 other persons under the emperor Aurelian {Martyr. Rom. April 24 ; Tilleniont, Memoires, iv, 363).
2. Another Goth and martyr who suffered many cruel tortures in the persecution under Athanaric, king of the Goths, and was finally drowned in the river Mu- SKus. His relics, together with a letter from the Gothic to the Cappadocian Church (which is preserved among the epistles of St. Basil), were sent to Cappadocia by the Roman governor on the Scythian border (Basil, Epp. 155, 164, 165; Martyr, Rom. and Acta SS. April 12; Stolberg, xii, 209).
3. A hermit of Mount Sinai who, according to a state- ment by the hermit Amnioniiis (Combefis, A eta SS. ; Eust., etc. [Paris, 1660]), was mortally -wounded in a surprise by the Saracens towards the close of the 4th centurv' (Tillemont, Memoires, vii, 575).
4. The name Sabas or Sabbas (according to Theod- oret. Fit, Patr. c. ii, equivalent to TrptafSvrijc') was con- ferred upon the hermit Julian of Edessa by the Mesopo- tamians. Julian was accounted one of the leading her- mits by Jerome and Chrysostom. He spent forty years of his "life (about A.D. 330-370) in a narrow and damp cave in the desert of Osroene, practicing the utmost austerity, performing miracles — chiefly works of heal- ing and exorcisms, descriptions of which are given by Theodoret — and instructing a band of nearly 100 pupils. The death of Julian the Apostate was revealed to this saint at the moment when that emperor fell in battle (A.D. 363), though twenty days' journey sei)arated him from the scene of conflict (Theodoret, H. E, iii, 24). In
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SABACHTHANI
the reign of Yalens the Arians of Antioch claimed that this hermit, wliose fame extended over the entire East, belonged to their part\' ; but Sabas, in response to the request of the Catholics, forsook his solitude for the first time in forty years, and appeared at Antioch to contra- dict the Arian boast, his journey to that place and back being signalized by the performance of numerous mira- cles. The recollection of this visit was still fresh when Chrysostom preached at Antioch. Sabas died in his cave, an old man. His festival is observed by the Greeks on Oct. 18 and 28, and by the Latins on Jan. 14 (Acta SS. Jan. 14; Tillemont, Memoires, vii, 681 ; Stol- berg, xii, 198). — Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. s. v.
5. The most noted saint of this name appeared at the beginning of the 6th century in connection with the Monophysite controversy. He was born about A.D. 439 at Mutalasca, in Cappadocia, of good family. At first a monk under the rule of St. Basil, he became a hermit in Palestine before completing the eighteenth year of his age, and was received into favor as a pupil by the her- mit Euthymius, to whose prayers he owed the preserva- tion of his life at a subsequent day, when he was dying of thirst in the desert (Stolberg, xvii, 168). He was made a priest in A.D. 484, and placed over all the her- mits in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, eventually fill- ing his station with great success, though at first the strictness of his rule gave much dissatisfaction and caused his withdrawal to a distant solitude. At the time of the Jlonophysite controversy', the patriarch Elias of Jerusalem sent him with other hermits to Con- stantinople with a view to dispose the emperor Anasta- sius more favorably towards the Catholic cause, but his mission failed to produce lasting residts. Elias having been superseded in the patriarchate by John, who be- longed to the party of Severus (q. v.), Sabas and others induced the new primate to renounce his views and ac- knowledge the Council of Chalcedon. The emperor en- deavored to reclaim John, but was met with a spirit of defiant opposition, which found further expression in the pronouncing of a solemn anathema upon Nestorius, Eu- tyches, Severus, and all other opponents of the Coimcil of Chalcedon. The revolt of Vitalian in the meantime diverted attention from the insubordinate monks, and in 618 the emperor Anastasius died. Sabas afterwards per- formed a second journey to Constantinople, a year be- fore he died, for the purpose of obtaining a reduction of the oppressive imposts exacted from the population of
Palestine, and also to counteract the influence of Origen- ism, which began to make itself felt among the monks under his direction. He was received with great pomp, the emperor Justinian sending Epiphanius, the patriarch, and a number of bishops and courtiers in the imperial galleys to meet him, and on his arrival prostrating him- self before the aged hermit to receive his blessing. The petition in belialf of Palestine was granted, and a large sum of money was offered to Sabas for the use of his convent; but this Sabas declined to receive, and asked that it be appropriated to other useful purposes in Pal- estine. Nothing, however, was done against Origenism while Sabas lived. See Okigenistio Controversy. A joyful welcome awaited him on his return to Pales- tine, after which he retired to his luura, and died Dec. 6, A.D. 531 or 532. There is a Greek liturgy entitled TiiTTiKih', etc. (printed at Venice, 1603, 1613, 1643, fol.), attributed to St. Saba, but of unknown authorship. See Cyrilli Vita S. Subce in Cotelerii Moiwm. Eccl. Gr. iii, and Latin in Surius, Dee. 6 ; Tillemont, Memoires, xvi, 701 sq. — Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex, s. v, ; comp. Smith, Diet, of Class. Bior/. s. v.