Sabinus of Hermopolis

Saint Sabinus was a high official, perhaps also a bishop, of the city of Hermopolis in Egypt, and suffered as a martyr in the persecution of Diocletian. He is also known as Abibus or Phanas. The Roman calendar commemorates him on 13 March and the Greek synaxaria on 16 March.

Sabinus was of noble birth and led his city. He took Christians into his house and cared for the poor. Some believe he was both governor and bishop. When the persecution began, he and many other Christians withdrew to a mountain, to a hut, where they spent their days in fasting and prayer.

Their hiding place was betrayed to the authorities by a man whose identity remains uncertain: the sources call him either a beggar or a physician. In the Serbian tradition he is a beggar who used to bring them food and to whom Sabinus had done much good. Sabinus and six others were seized by soldiers, bound and taken to trial. He was taken to Antinoöpolis, where he endured various tortures and was cast into the Nile, in whose waters he gave up his soul. The Serbian sources place his death in the year 287.

The martyr is honoured by several Churches. The Coptic Church also commemorates him on 20 February.