Sergius the Sabaite

Holy Venerable Sergius the Sabaite was a monk of the Great Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, killed by the Saracens in the eighth century, in Holy Week, together with the fathers of the lavra.

In the eighth century the surroundings of Jerusalem were often raided by Saracens; the monastery of Saint Chariton had been destroyed and abandoned, and the Lavra of Saint Sabbas had been attacked twice, but Providence guarded it. The monks could have taken refuge in Jerusalem but decided 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 and demanded all the valuables. Learning that there was nothing but a little food and old clothes, they shot arrows at the monks: thirteen were killed and many wounded, and the cells were burned. They meant to burn the church too, but, seeing a crowd far off, they thought they were troops from Jerusalem and fled. Father Thomas, a skilled doctor, tended the survivors.

On Great Thursday, 20 March, the Saracens returned in greater numbers and began to kill the monks. The survivors were herded into the church so that they might be made by torture to tell where the treasures were hidden. The young John, steward of the pilgrims, was cruelly tortured, the tendons of his hands and feet were cut, and he was dragged over the stones. The venerable Sergius, keeper of the sacred vessels, hid the plate and tried to flee, but was caught and beheaded. Some monks hid in a cave, but a lookout saw them; then the venerable Patricius told them in a whisper not to be afraid, for he would go out alone and die for them. The Saracens demanded a ransom of four thousand gold pieces, which the monks did not have, and shut them in the cave of Saint Sabbas, where they lit a fire of dung so that they would suffocate in the smoke. Eighteen died in the cave, John and Patricius among them; the others were tortured further, but, getting nothing, the Saracens left. On the night of Great Friday the monks who had hidden in the mountains returned to the lavra, carried the bodies of the slain fathers into the church and buried them there in sorrow. Of the barbarians who plundered the lavra it is told that they were struck by sudden illness and all perished, and their bodies were devoured by wild beasts.

The saint is commemorated on 2 April, in the new style.