Sabbas vom Sinai and Companions

ON THE HOLY MONK-MARTYRS SABBAS, ISAIAH, AND THIRTY-SIX OTHERS, ON MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA

Under Diocletian.

Sabbas, Monk-Martyr on Mount Sinai (S.) Isaiah, Monk-Martyr on Mount Sinai (S.) Thirty-eight other Monk-Martyrs on Mount Sinai

From Various Sources.

[1] Sinai—also called Sinai—a mountain of Arabia, most celebrated throughout the whole world for the memory of the Prophet Moses and the laws received from heaven, was not without its share of Christian sacred sites afterward, some traces of which survive even now: monasteries of monks situated around it, though corrupted by the various errors of the Greeks and Egyptians. Petrus Bellonius of Le Mans describes them in book 2 of his Observations, chapter 62 and following. That many most holy men formerly dwelt there, The monk-martyrs of Mount Sinai. as we shall show on March 30 when treating of St. John Climacus, and elsewhere. On January 14, various holy Fathers are celebrated by both Greeks and Latins, of whom some were slain there by the Saracens in the time of Diocletian, and others in the age of Theodosius the Younger. For as soon as devout men began to cultivate the solitary life, these places seemed suitable, being both consecrated by those ancient sacred associations and offering the deepest quiet, with rocks almost inaccessible. Perhaps too, hiding places were first sought here by those whom fear of tyrants had driven from Egypt or Syria—for the same reason that the uncultivated solitudes of the Thebaid were first entered and inhabited, as we stated above on January 10 in the Life of St. Paul.

[2] Now the Roman Martyrology has confused the two classes of Martyrs which we said are honored on this day, January 14: "On Mount Sinai," Two classes of them. it says, "the holy thirty-eight monks slain by the Saracens for the faith of Christ." And Molanus and the Greek Menologion: "On the fourteenth day, of the holy Fathers slain on Sinai and in Raithu." Christophorus Patricius also: "The Abbots of Raithu and of Mount Sinai." St. Nilus distinguishes them in his account of the slaughter of his contemporaries, below no. 28: "They died, their course completed, on the seventh day after Theophany, which is the fourteenth day of the month of January." And immediately after: "Others too were slain many ages before, whose own commemoration also, because of the length of the journey and the multitude of those who gather, they celebrate on the same day."

[3] The Menologion published by Henry Canisius speaks expressly of the earlier group: "The contest of the holy Fathers slain on Sinai by the Saracens, in the times of Diocletian and Peter of Alexandria: the Fathers slain were thirty-eight, of whom Isaiah and Sabbas were found alive, The martyrdom of the earlier group. while others were found dead." The Menaea and the Anthologion approved by Clement VIII, under the same title of the Fathers slain on Sinai, first treat of those whose slaughter St. Nilus described, then add these things about the earlier ones: "Long before, in the reign of Diocletian, when Peter was governing the Church of Alexandria, others were killed who also dwelt on Mount Sinai. For the Saracens who inhabited the same mountain, going forth when their chieftain had been killed, slew many of the holy anchorites, while the rest fled to the fortification. But a flame appeared to the Saracens by night, as if burning the whole mountain, which seemed to rise up to heaven. Terrified by the portent, they threw down their weapons and fled. Those who were first killed numbered thirty-eight; their bodies were maimed by various wounds. Two of them, Sabbas and Isaiah, were found still breathing. Some had their necks completely severed by the sword; in others the skin hung by one side; and the bodies of some were cut through the middle. Two monks buried them, who also reported these things."

[4] What was this fortification. So far the Menaea. As for the fortification (Greek: ochyroma) mentioned here, to which some of the monks retreated, it may be conjectured to have been on Mount Horeb, near Sinai, on whose summit Bellonius writes (book 2, chapter 63) there is a plateau, and on it a temple built at the place where Elijah is said to have dwelt: with steps cut in the solid rock going higher up, and a gate that formerly used to be shut at the beginning of the steps to close off that side—so that whoever wished to place a garrison there could easily prevent descent from the mountain to that place. We do not think, however, that a garrison of Roman soldiers was there at the time, at least in the age of Diocletian, but rather some refuge of the local inhabitants, to which they would carry their goods when the Saracens were raiding the flat country.

[5] One might ask which ones, numbering thirty-eight, the Menaea assert were first killed: whether those mentioned earlier, the contemporaries of St. Nilus, How many were there. or the more ancient ones. The latter seem to be meant. For St. Nilus, although he carefully recorded even the smallest details, mentions neither the death of a Phylarch or chieftain, nor the flight of the barbarians terrified by the fiery portent; nor does he mention survivors Isaiah and Sabbas, but only reports that the Priest Theodulus was found not yet completely dead. Whether, as the Menaea and Anthologion seem clearly to assert, Sabbas and Isaiah should be counted among the thirty-eight is not equally clear, since forty Fathers are said to be honored, and that many do not seem to have been killed in St. Nilus's time, and far more result if both groups are joined together—unless perhaps the number forty is used for celebration of those who were actually more, because that number had been consecrated in that very place by more than one mystery. Ferrarius in his general catalogue of Saints: "On Mount Sinai, of the forty holy Monk-Martyrs." But he errs when he writes in his Notes that they appear to be the same ones who are recorded in the Roman Martyrology as slain in the region of Raithu. For Raithu is many miles distant from Horeb and Sinai, as we shall say below. Their monastery. The monastery dedicated to the memory of these forty Martyrs seems to be the one Bellonius describes in book 2, chapter 63: "At the base of this mountain (Horeb) there is a small monastery called Saranda Pateres." He probably meant to write tessarakonta Pateres ("forty Fathers"). And expressly in the following chapter he calls it the monastery of the forty Fathers; whether they dwelt and were killed there, or only their festival is celebrated there—to which formerly a large crowd used to flock from even distant places, as is clear from the words of St. Nilus quoted above.