The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμένου) and historically as the Great Laura of Saint Sabas,
is a
Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the
Kidron Valley in the
Bethlehem Governorate of
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, in the
West Bank,
at a point halfway between
Bethlehem and the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
. The monks of Mar Saba and those of subsidiary houses are known as Sabaites.
Mar Saba is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited monasteries in the world, and it maintains many of its ancient traditions. One in particular is the restriction on
women entering the main compound. The only building that women can enter is the Women's Tower, near the main entrance.
History
Byzantine period
The monastery was founded by
Sabbas the Sanctified in 483, on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley, where - according to the monastery's own website - the first seventy hermits gathered around the hermitage of St Sabbas.
Later on, the laura relocated to the opposite, western side of the gorge, where the Church of Theoktistos was built in 486 and consecrated in 491.
[ The constant growth of the community meant that soon after, in 502, the Church of the God-bearing Virgin Mary, in Greek ]Theotokos
''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...
, was built to serve as the main church of the monastery.[ Saint Sabbas' Typikon, the set of rules applied at the Great Laura and recorded by the saint, eventually became the worldwide model of monastic life and liturgical order][ known as the ]Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople.
Th ...
.
Mar Saba was the home of St. John of Damascus
John of Damascus ( ar, يوحنا الدمشقي, Yūḥanna ad-Dimashqī; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός, Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós, ; la, Ioannes Damascenus) or John Damascene was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and a ...
(676–749; ar, يوحنا الدمشقي), a key religious figure in the Iconoclastic Controversy, who, around 726, wrote letters to the Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian refuting his edicts prohibiting the veneration of icons (images of Christ or other Christian religious figures). Born to a prominent Damascence political family, John worked as a high financial officer to the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik
Abdul Malik ( ar, عبد الملك) is an Arabic (Muslim or Christian) male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' Abd'', ''al-'' and '' Malik''. The name means "servant of the King", in the Christian insta ...
; he eventually felt a higher calling and migrated to the Judaean desert, where he was tonsured and was ordained a hieromonk (monastic priest) at the Monastery of Mar Saba. St. John's tomb lies in a cave under the monastery.
Early Muslim period
Ancient sources describe an Arab attack on the monastery in 797, leading to the massacre of twenty monks. The community seems to have also suffered under the persecutions of calip al-Hakim Hakim may refer to:
* Al-Ḥakīm ( Arabic: الحكيم), one of the names of God in Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around th ...
in 1009 as well as Turkmen
Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to:
Peoples Historical ethnonym
* Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages
Ethnic groups
* Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
raids in the 11th century but experienced occasional phases of peace as can be seen by the scribal and artistic activities.
Mar Saba was the home of the famous Georgian monk and scribe Ioane-Zosime
John Zosimus, also known as Ioane-Zosime ( ka, იოანე-ზოსიმე; died c. 990) was a 10th-century Georgian Christian monk, religious writer, and calligrapher. He is known for his liturgical compilations and for composing several ...
, who moved before 973 to Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...
taking several parchment manuscripts with him.
Crusader period
The monastery kept its importance during the existence of the Catholic Kingdom of Jerusalem established by Crusaders in 1099.
Mamluk and Ottoman periods
In 1504, the Serbian monastic community of Palestine, based out of the fourteenth century monastery of St. Michael the Archangel, purchased Mar Saba, which at the time was abandoned due to Bedouin raids. The Serbs controlled the monastery until the late 1630s, and the significant financial support the monastery received from the Tsar of Russia allowed them to run the monastery semi-independently from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the monastery's nominal overseer (much to the vexation of the patriarchate). The Serbs' control of Mar Saba allowed them to play an important role in the politics of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, often siding with the Arabic laity and priests against the Greeks who dominated the episcopate. Serbian control of the monastery eventually ended in the 1600s when the monastery got into massive debt due to the simultaneous combination of a massive building program at the monastery and a cutting off of financial support from Russia due to the outbreak of the Time of Troubles. The Serbs were forced to sell the monastery to the Patriarch of Jerusalem in order to pay off their debts.
Modern period
Today, the complex houses 9 monks.
Significance
The monastery, considered among the oldest continuously inhabited in the Christian world, has been a place of learning and has exerted an important influence in doctrinal developments in the Byzantine Church. Important personalities in this regard included Saint Sabbas himself, John of Damascus (676–749), and the brothers Theodorus and Theophanes
Theodorus (ca. 775–ca. 842) and Theophanes (ca. 778–845), called the ''Grapti'' (from the Greek graptoi, "written upon"), are remembered as proponents of the veneration of icons during the second Iconoclastic controversy. They were bro ...
(770s–840s).
The monastery is important in the historical development of the liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
of the Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church may refer to:
* Eastern Orthodox Church
* Oriental Orthodox Churches
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
* State church of the Roman Empire
* True Orthodox church
See also
* Orthodox (dis ...
in that the monastic Typicon (manner of celebrating worship services) of Saint Sabbas became the standard throughout the Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches under the Pope which follow the Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople.
Th ...
. The Typicon took the standard form of services which were celebrated in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and added some specifically monastic usages which were local traditions at Saint Sabbas. From there it spread to Constantinople, and thence throughout the Byzantine world. Although this Typicon has undergone further evolution, particularly at the Monastery of the Stoudion
The Monastery of Stoudios, more fully Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner "at Stoudios" ( grc-gre, Μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Προδρόμου εν τοις Στουδίου, Monē tou Hagiou Iōannē tou Prodromou en to ...
in Constantinople, it is still referred to as the ''Typicon of Saint Sabbas''. A tradition states that this monastery will host the last Divine Liturgy on earth before the parousia of Jesus Christ, therefore the last pillar of true Christianity.
Relics
The monastery holds the relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s of Saint Sabbas. The relics were seized by Latin crusaders in the 12th century and remained in Italy until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of repentance and good will towards Orthodox Christians.
Manuscripts
Mar Saba is where Morton Smith purportedly found a copy of a letter ascribed to Clement of Alexandria containing excerpts of a so-called '' Secret Gospel of Mark'',[Morton Smith, ''Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark'' (Harvard University Press) 1973] and was for several centuries home to the Archimedes Palimpsest
The Archimedes Palimpsest is a parchment codex palimpsest, originally a Byzantine Greek copy of a compilation of Archimedes and other authors. It contains two works of Archimedes that were thought to have been lost (the ''Ostomachion'' and the ' ...
.
Access
Women are only allowed to come to the main entrance, but without entering the walled compound.
The monastery is closed for visitors on Wednesdays and Fridays (the fasting days of the week).
Gallery
File:Mar Saba (Photo by Jean & Nathalie, 2011).jpg, Mar Saba Monastery, 2011
File:Mar Saba Women's Tower.jpg, The Women's Tower at Mar Saba Monastery is the only building on the grounds that women are allowed to enter.
File:(1453) Marsaba Klosteret.jpg, Mar Saba seen from a distance
File:Marsava.jpg, Mar Saba, in the Kidron Valley
List of abbots
There are gaps in this list. Prior to the 18th century, dates are years when the abbot (or hegumen) is known to have held office and not the start and end dates. From the 18th century on, the dates indicate the start of an abbot's term, which usually lasted two years at first, longer later on. The official list goes back to 1704, but still has gaps.[Patrich, Joseph]
"The Sabaite Heritage: An Introductory Survey"
in J. Patrich (ed.), ''The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present'' (Louvain: Peeters, 2001), pp. 1–30, at 25–27 (Appendix: List of ''Hegoumenoi'').
Notes
See also
* War of Saint Sabas
* Serapheim Savvaitis Schema-Archimandrite Serapheim (Travassaros) of the Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, also Serapheim Savvaitis the "Elder of the Desert", or Serapheim Agiotafitis, born Stamatios Travassaros ( el, Ο Γέρων Σεραφείμ Σαββαΐτη ...
* Theodorus and Theophanes
Theodorus (ca. 775–ca. 842) and Theophanes (ca. 778–845), called the ''Grapti'' (from the Greek graptoi, "written upon"), are remembered as proponents of the veneration of icons during the second Iconoclastic controversy. They were bro ...
called the Grapti (770s–840s), monks educated at Mar Saba, opponents of iconoclasm
Notes
References
Bibliography
* (pp
219
232
* (pp
92
101
* (pp
1419
* (p
347
* (pp
258268
* (pp
26
249
* (Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
123
External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 18
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Photos of Mar Saba
at the Manar al-Athar photo archive
{{Authority control
Ancient churches in the Holy Land
Christian monasteries established in the 5th century
5th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire
439 establishments
Greek culture
Greek Orthodox monasteries
Church buildings in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Culture of Georgia (country)
Christian monasteries in the West Bank
Greek Orthodoxy in the State of Palestine
Eastern Orthodox church buildings in the State of Palestine
Tourist attractions in the State of Palestine
Lavras