Sabas the Goth

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Sabas the Goth
Born around 334 ( Buzău Valley, Romania )
Deceased April 14, 372 (Buzau Valley, Romania)
Holiday April 12th (Catholic), April 15th (Orthodox)

Sabas the Goth , also simply called Sabas or Sabbas , was a freeborn Goth from the Terwingen tribe . He is not to be confused with Saint Sabas , an oriental monk who lived over a hundred years later (around 439–532) and who had nothing to do with proselytizing the Goths. Sabas lived in a village community of the Danube Goths , probably on federal land in Moesia , south of the Danube . He was born around 334 and, unlike most of the Goths who were converted by Bishop Wulfila and who had become Christian, was not Arian , but Catholic.

So Sabas lived, free but poor, in a gothic rural village community, which obviously had a partly pagan , partly Christian population. He participated in the decisions of the village community, which only had local powers, while supra-local decisions were made by the greats of the tribe, the Reiks and the tribal council, to which the "kunja", the followers of the free village communities, were subordinate. The village community itself had a village assembly, which in turn was dominated by a small group of residents. Their tasks also included the consecration of the (pagan) sacrificial flesh and the preparation of the sacrificial meal, that is, to shape the pagan cults. Since Sabas refused to take part in the sacrificial meal, he was banished from the village community, the punishment provided for "magic", because magic was considered strange and therefore forbidden religious practices.

After a while he returned to his village. The village elders wanted to protect him and other Christians in the village, since they were usually related to them, from the zeal for persecution of the pagan Reiks. But Sabas thwarted these efforts by openly proclaiming his Christian convictions everywhere. Since the village elders swore to the Reik Atharid that he was the only Christian in the village, the Reik was satisfied with a renewed banishment of Sabas.

Finally Sabas fell victim to the 3rd wave of persecution at Atharids. On his express orders, the village community reluctantly killed Sabas. At the age of 38, he was martyred on April 12, 372 when he was drowned in the Musäus River . The Roman Dux Junius Soranus , a Catholic and opponent of Wulfilas, had the mortal remains of Sabas recovered and his saint's life written down.

Web links

Commons : Sabbas the Goth  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listed under this name in the LThK (3rd edition 1993-2001) and in the Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (list of names online at www.bautz.de ( Memento of October 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ^ Johann Evangelist Stadler (Ed.), Complete Lexicon of Saints , Volume 5, Augsburg 1882, online at www.heiligenlexikon.de
  3. ↑ Joseph Hergenröther (ed.), Wetzer and Welte's Kirchenlexikon , Volume 10, Freiburg im Breisgau 1897 (only reference to the spelling for "a number of personalities from church history")
  4. ^ Herwig Wolfram : History of the Goths , CH Beck-Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3 406 04027 6 : page 86
  5. ^ Herwig Wolfram: History of the Goths , CH Beck-Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3 406 04027 6 : page 92
  6. ↑ Herwig Wolfram: History of the Goths , CH Beck-Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3 406 04027 6 : page 120
  7. ↑ Hippolyte Delehaye (ed.), Passio sancti Sabae Gothi, Analecta Bollandiana 31, Paris 1912: pages 216 ff.
  8. ^ Herwig Wolfram: History of the Goths , CH Beck-Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3 406 04027 6 : page 94
personal data
SURNAME Sabas the Goth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sabas; Sabbas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION freeborn goth
DATE OF BIRTH at 334
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 372