Patricius the Sabaite

Saint Patricius the Sabaite is commemorated on 2 April with the venerable Johns, Sergius and the others killed at the Lavra of Saint Sabbas. He lived in the eighth century, when the surroundings of Jerusalem were often attacked by Saracens. The monastery of Saint Chariton had been destroyed and laid waste, and the Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified had been attacked twice and kept safe by God's providence. The monks could have taken shelter in Jerusalem, but resolved not to leave the place where they had been saved for so many years.

At the end of Great Lent, in the week before Palm Sunday, on 13 March, the Saracens burst into the monastery demanding all valuables. Told that it had nothing but a little food and old clothes, they shot arrows at the monks: thirteen were killed and many wounded, and the cells were burning. They meant to burn the church as well but, seeing a crowd of people in the distance, took them for troops sent from Jerusalem and left in haste. Father Thomas, a skilled physician, cared for the wounded.

On Holy Thursday, 20 March, the Saracens came back in greater numbers and began to destroy the monks. The survivors were herded into the church to be tortured into saying where treasure was hidden. They seized John, a young monk, caretaker of strangers, tortured him, cut the sinews of his legs and arms and dragged him over rocks, flaying his back. Sergius, keeper of the sacred vessels, who had hidden the treasures and tried to flee, was caught and beheaded.

A few monks had hidden in a cave, but a guard on the mountain noticed and ordered them all out. Patricius whispered to those in the cave: do not be afraid, I will go out alone for you and die, and you stay silent. Asked by the Saracen whether anyone else was there, he answered that he had been alone. They took him to the church of the Lavra, where the others waited. The Saracens demanded a ransom of four thousand gold pieces and the sacred vessels, but the monks had none. They were moved to the cave of Saint Sabbas within the monastery enclosure and at its entrance a fire was lit into which dung was thrown, so that the prisoners would suffocate in the smoke. Eighteen died in the cave, among them John and Patricius. The survivors the Saracens went on tormenting, but, achieving nothing, they left the monastery.

Late in the night of Great Friday the monks hidden in the mountains returned to the Lavra, carried the bodies of the murdered fathers into the church and buried them there in sorrow. The plunderers were punished by God: a sudden illness struck them, and all died, and their bodies were eaten by wild beasts.

Saint Patricius is commemorated on 2 April, in the new style.