Sabbas the Goth

Sabbas (also Sava, Savo, Saba, or Savva; died 12 April, 372 A. D.) the Goth is a fourth-century Christian martyr and saint.

Life and Persecution

He was born in 334 in a village in the Buzău river valley and lived in what is now the Wallachia region in Romania and converted to Christianity as a youth. His hagiography states that he was a Goth by race and may have been a cantor or a reader to the religious community there.

In circa 369 the Tervingi king Athanaric began a persecution of the Christians in his territory. First, a Gothic nobleman began the suppression of Christianity in Sabbas' area. When his agents came to the village where Sabbas lived they forced the villagers to eat pagan sacrificial meat. According to the tale, non-Christian villagers wanting to help their Christian neighbours tricked the authorities by exchanging the sacrificial meat for meat that had not been sacrificed. However, Sabbas made a conspicuous show of rejecting the meat altogether. His fellow villagers exiled him but after a while he was allowed to return.