Sabbas the Sanctified (also rendered Savva) was a fifth- and sixth-century monk of Cappadocian origin who became one of the foremost fathers of Palestinian monasticism. By tradition he was born in 439 at Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia to John, a military commander, and Sophia. After his parents departed for Alexandria on military matters, leaving him in the care of an uncle, he entered the nearby Monastery of Saint Flavian around the age of eight and was tonsured a monk at seventeen.
After about ten years at Saint Flavian, Sabbas travelled to Jerusalem and placed himself under Saint Euthymius the Great, living for a time under the elder Theoctistus. Following the death of Euthymius in 473 he withdrew into a more solitary life, eventually settling in the Kidron valley south of Jerusalem, where disciples gathered around him. The community that formed there grew into the Great Lavra — known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba — whose foundation is traditionally dated to 484. He went on to establish further monasteries in the Judean desert, including the New Lavra.
Sabbas is credited with composing the Jerusalem Typikon, the first monastic rule ordering the cycle of church services, which was adopted throughout the Palestinian monasteries and exerted lasting influence on Byzantine liturgical practice. A firm adherent of the Council of Chalcedon, he travelled twice to Constantinople — to the emperor Anastasius I in 511 and to Justinian I in 531 — to advocate the Orthodox cause against the Monophysite and Origenist movements of his day. He died on December 5, 532, and is commemorated on that date.
