Venerable Savva the Sanctified

439 – 532

Also known as Sabbas the Sanctified

A Cappadocian monk who became one of the greatest fathers of Palestinian monasticism, founding the Great Lavra near Jerusalem and defending Orthodox teaching.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Sabbas the Sanctified

Life

Sabbas the Sanctified (also rendered Savva) was a fifth- and sixth-century monk of Cappadocian origin who became one of the foremost fathers of Palestinian monasticism. By tradition he was born in 439 at Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia to John, a military commander, and Sophia. After his parents departed for Alexandria on military matters, leaving him in the care of an uncle, he entered the nearby Monastery of Saint Flavian around the age of eight and was tonsured a monk at seventeen.

After about ten years at Saint Flavian, Sabbas travelled to Jerusalem and placed himself under Saint Euthymius the Great, living for a time under the elder Theoctistus. Following the death of Euthymius in 473 he withdrew into a more solitary life, eventually settling in the Kidron valley south of Jerusalem, where disciples gathered around him. The community that formed there grew into the Great Lavra — known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba — whose foundation is traditionally dated to 484. He went on to establish further monasteries in the Judean desert, including the New Lavra.

Sabbas is credited with composing the Jerusalem Typikon, the first monastic rule ordering the cycle of church services, which was adopted throughout the Palestinian monasteries and exerted lasting influence on Byzantine liturgical practice. A firm adherent of the Council of Chalcedon, he travelled twice to Constantinople — to the emperor Anastasius I in 511 and to Justinian I in 531 — to advocate the Orthodox cause against the Monophysite and Origenist movements of his day. He died on December 5, 532, and is commemorated on that date.

Customs & Traditions

Founder of the Great Lavra near Jerusalem and author of the Typikon that still orders Orthodox services; kept with special veneration in the monasteries and a name-day for Savvas. His feast falls on the eve of St Nicholas.

Kontakion & Troparion2 hymnsReadHide

KontakionTone 8

(Podoben: “O Victorious Leader...”) From your youth you were offered to God as an unblemished sacrifice because of your virtue,
having been dedicated to Him before your birth, O blessed Savva.
You were an adornment of monastics and a praiseworthy citizen of the desert.
Therefore, we cry to you: “Hail, greatly renowned Father.”

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

TroparionTone 8

With the streams of your tears you cultivated the barrenness of the desert;
and by your sighs from the depths, you bore fruit a hundredfold in your labors.
You became a luminary, shining upon the world with miracles.
O our righteous Father Savva, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline8 momentsReadHide

439Birth in CappadociaBorn by tradition at Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia to John and Sophia.
c. 456Monastic tonsureTonsured a monk at the age of seventeen after years at the Monastery of Saint Flavian.
473Death of Euthymius the GreatAfter his elder's death, Sabbas withdrew to a more solitary ascetic life.
484Foundation of the Great LavraThe Great Lavra (Mar Saba) is traditionally founded in the Kidron valley south of Jerusalem.
511Embassy to Anastasius ITravelled to Constantinople to appeal to the emperor in defense of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy.
531Embassy to Justinian IMade a second journey to the capital, to the emperor Justinian I.
532DeathDied at his lavra on December 5; commemorated on that date.
1965Return of relicsHis relics, taken to Venice by Crusaders, were returned to Mar Saba.

Contributions & Legacy

4 contributionsReadHide

Monastic Formation

According to the tradition transmitted in the synaxarion, Sabbas showed an inclination to the monastic life from boyhood, entering the Monastery of Saint Flavian as a child and receiving the tonsure at seventeen. The OCA account relates that he attained such perfection in fasting and prayer that he was found worthy of the gift of working miracles.

Drawn to the holy places, he came to Jerusalem and then to the lavra of Saint Euthymius the Great, who guided his early ascetic life and is said to have called him a "Child-Elder" for the maturity of his discipline. Sabbas remained under this formation, living for a period with the elder Theoctistus, until about the age of thirty.

The Great Lavra

After the death of Euthymius in 473, Sabbas withdrew to a solitary cave in the wilderness near the region of Saint Gerasimus. As his reputation for holiness spread, disciples sought him out, and the community that gathered grew into the Great Lavra in the Kidron gorge, traditionally founded in 484. The OCA account relates that a spring of water welled up at the Lavra and that the sick and those troubled by demons were healed there.

Sabbas was ordained to the priesthood and entrusted with oversight of the monks of the Judean desert. The Great Lavra became a centre of monastic life that he supplemented with additional foundations, among them the New Lavra. The monastery he founded, Mar Saba, has remained in continuous use as one of the oldest inhabited monastic communities in the Christian world.

Defense of Orthodoxy and Embassies

Sabbas was an outspoken defender of the Christological definition of the Council of Chalcedon against the Monophysite teaching prevalent in parts of the East, and he later opposed the spread of Origenism among the Palestinian monks. In this cause he undertook two journeys to the imperial capital: in 511 he appealed to the emperor Anastasius I, and in 531, near the end of his life, to Justinian I.

His Life was written by his disciple Cyril of Scythopolis, whose account is the principal source for the saint's biography and for the early history of Judean desert monasticism.

Death and Relics

Sabbas died at his lavra on December 5, 532, at an advanced age — the tradition placing his birth in 439 makes him roughly ninety-three. His relics were carried off to Italy by Crusaders in the twelfth century and kept at Venice, until they were returned to the Mar Saba monastery in 1965.

Works & Further ReadingReadHide

Notable Works

Jerusalem Typikon — The monastic rule ordering the cycle of church services, adopted throughout the Palestinian monasteries and influential in later Byzantine liturgical practice.