Sabbas the Goth

Saint Sabbas the Goth, called also Sabbas of Buzău, was a Gothic Christian of the Buzău valley, who died a martyr in 372 during the persecution begun by King Athanaric. He is one of the first saints known by name from the lands of present-⁠day Romania. The Church commemorates him on 12 April.

Life He was born around 334 in a village in the valley of the river Buzău, then called the Mousaios, in a Christian family of the Gothic Tervingi. The account of his martyrdom says that he was a man of true faith, pious, humble, without wealth, self-⁠restrained and steadfast in fasting and prayer. He sang in church, where he was very skilled, and he spoke the truth in such a way that worshippers of idols were left without an answer. Some sources say he was baptized through the preaching of Bishop Ulfilas. Other sources observe that he was not an Arian, as were many of the Goths converted by Ulfilas, but of the right faith. He was close to the priest Sansalas.

Around 369 King Athanaric began a persecution of Christians. In the village where Sabbas lived, officials demanded that everyone eat meat sacrificed to idols. Some pagans, to save their Christian neighbours, handed over meat that had not been sacrificed, but Sabbas made it plain that he would not eat, and the villagers drove him out. After a time he was allowed to return. When the chief came again, the villagers swore that there were no Christians among them, but Sabbas said: “Let no one swear for me. I am a Christian.” The villagers then said he was a poor man of no account, and the chief let him go, saying he could do them neither good nor harm.

Martyrdom In 372, at Easter, Sabbas celebrated with the priest Sansalas. Three days later Atharid, the son of a sub-⁠king of Athanaric, came to the village to seize Sansalas. Sabbas was dragged naked through thorns, then bound to the wheel of a cart and beaten. The next day he was offered sacrificed meat again but stood firm. A man of Atharid's company, angered that Sabbas had insulted his prince, hurled a pestle at him like a javelin, so hard that all thought he was dead, but it left no mark. According to the account of his martyrdom, his body bore no sign of the torments the next morning.

Atharid ordered him to be thrown into the river. On the way to the water he praised God and rebuked the idolatry of the soldiers, who, thinking him mad, wished to let him go. But Sabbas told them to do their duty, for he saw what they could not see: the saints standing in glory on the far side, coming to receive him. Then they drowned him, pressing a branch against his neck. A Greek source adds that he was hanged, but the oldest written account has him die by drowning.

Relics and veneration The Christians took his body and hid it until they could send it to the Roman Empire, where Bishop Ascholius of Thessalonica received it. Saint Basil the Great, who had asked the governor of Scythia Minor, Junius Soranus, for relics of saints, received the relics of Sabbas at Caesarea in Cappadocia in 373 or 374, together with a letter from the Church of Gothia to the Church of Cappadocia. The letter, written in Greek, is attributed to Bishop Bretanion of Tomis. Basil praised Sabbas as an athlete of Christ and a martyr for the truth.

The Passion of Saint Sabbas is also valued by historians, because it gives a rare picture of life in Gothic villages. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 12 April, and in the Russian Church his feast falls on 15 April.