Sabbas of Sinai

Holy Venerable Martyr Sabbas of Sinai is one of the Venerable Fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu, ascetics from the monasteries and caves of Mount Sinai and from the nearby desert of Raithu on the shore of the Red Sea, killed by Saracens and Blemmyes, nomadic Arab tribes.

The first slaughter took place around the year 312 and was described by Ammonius, an Egyptian monk, witness to the death of forty Fathers of Sinai; at that time the Arabs also killed thirty-⁠nine Fathers at Raithu. The second slaughter took place more than a hundred years later and was described by a witness who escaped by a miracle, Venerable Nilus the Faster. The ascetics led a hard life: all week they stayed in cells in silence, on Saturday they gathered for the vigil, on Sunday they received communion, and their food was only dates and water; some, like the elders Moses and Joseph, became known for the gift of working wonders. The service names them: Isaiah, Sabbas, Moses, his disciple Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius, Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius and Elias.

Venerable Sabbas is commemorated on 27 January (14 January in the old style) and on 5 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Venerables of Sinai, in the new style.