Thursday, December 5, 2024

It is the 5th of December 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

From Santa Barbara on the California coast to Mar Saba today, tucked inside the Kidron Valley between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea today, we remember an underappreciated character in the West and the founder of one of the two oldest monasteries in continuous use up to the present day.

Part of the problem with underappreciated historical figures is we don’t always standardize or anglicize, and thus, you’ll find many variants. Let me break this down for you:

St. Saba, or Sabba, or Sabbas, was born in 439 in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Saba’s parents were wealthy on account of his father's role in the Roman legion, but had to travel and left the boy with family. On account of a dispute over the money left for young Saba, he fled to the protection of the local bishop, Flavian. From the age of 8, he studied and memorized as much scripture as he could and by 17 was tonsured (given the haircut that marks you off as separate- this “monk” look was abandoned in the west in 1972).

Saba was a contemporary of St. Benedict in the West, and as Benedict became synonymous with a rule and monastery, so too would Saba in the East.

He was granted 5 years of ascetic practice (that is, prayer and solitude) in the desert as was common- not only is there plenty of desert in the region, but solitude and prayer in the desert is certainly a biblical motif.

After a few years, other men who wanted to be like him came to be disciplined by him. He initially refused but allowed other men to dwell in nearby caves- forming a “Lavra” or “Laura”- that is, a collection of hermitages.

Eventually, some 150 men came to live near him and imitate him; thus he was entreated to be ordained as a priest. Now in his 50s, his reputation preceded him, and the communal church used by the desert hermits became one of the centers of Eastern monasticism and, along with St. Catherine’s monastery in Egypt, remained the longest active community with uninterrupted worship since the 5th century.

Given its location, you might imagine it has been a center of some conflict- Persians invaded it in the 7th century, and many of the brothers were killed. During the Crusades, fellow Christians looted them, and the remains of St. Saba were taken to Venice and only returned in 1962. It’s remote location not only served as a model for eastern Monasteries being as far from civilization as possible- but it protected it during the upheavals in civilization, too!

The church was damaged in a 19th-century earthquake but was restored by the Russian Orthodox. Since 1995, the beautiful monastery carved into the side of a cliff has been under Israeli control in section C in Palestine. Today, anywhere from 1 to  2 dozen monks call the Monastery of Mar Saba home (and yes, Mar Saba is both his name and the monastery name; you might see it spelled with 2 ‘b’s or ‘v’s).

But of all the history and its witness to 1500 years of history, it is probably best known for being the birthplace of the Typikon of St. Saba, which became like a missal, or “order of worship” that was copied and eventually formed the foundation for the liturgy of the great church of Constantinople.

St Saba, or “Saba the Sanctified,” would live into his 90s, dying on the 5th of December in 532. His desire to practice contemplation and prayer led him into the desert, like many before and after him, but what he created there- the monastery called by his name would become the standard for Eastern monasticism, and 1540 years later, it is still in existence. St. Saba, Sabbas, Savvas… you get it- images of this monastery are worth checking out.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary, Zechariah’s song from Luke 1:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

    in the house of his servant David

(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

salvation from our enemies

    and from the hand of all who hate us—

to show mercy to our ancestors

    and to remember his holy covenant,
    the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,

    and to enable us to serve him without fear
    in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;

    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

to give his people the knowledge of salvation

    through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness

    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.” 

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 5th of December 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who always thought that monks' hair just grew like that, it’s how they knew they should become monks…Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man taught by Ramona Quimby that Desert has 1 s, and Dessert has two s’s because you want more of that… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.