Feast day: December 5
St. Sabbas the Sanctified
One of the great founders of monasticism in the Judean desert, whose 'Great Lavra' near Bethlehem still survives after fifteen centuries, and whose monastic rule shaped Eastern worship.
The monastery he founded, Mar Saba, is one of the oldest inhabited monasteries on earth — monks have prayed there without a break for over 1,500 years.
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