The Passion of St. Saba the Goth

[andrei_stirbu]

"Another text crucial to our understanding of the Gothic reception of
Christianity is the Passion of St. Saba the Goth. The text survives in
10th century manuscripts, but the story itself dates the martyrdom of
St. Saba to April 12, 372 AD. The story tells us that Saba was a Goth
living in Gothic territory, and had been a Christian since childhood.
He had no possessions except for the bare necessities.

As the story goes, Christians were compelled to eat flesh sacrificed
according to Gothic tribal customs, and therefore unclean to
Christians. At the level of the village, it seems that Christianity
could be tolerated, as long as it was not practiced overtly
(translated sections are quoted from Heather and Matthews, 1991):
  	  	[W]hen the chief men in Gothia began to be moved against the
Christians, compelling them to eat sacrificial meat, it occurred to
some of the pagans in the village in which Saba lived to make the
Christians who belonged to them eat publicly before the persecutors
meat that had not been sacrificed in place of that which had, hoping
thereby to preserve the innocence of their own people and at the same
time to deceive the persecutors. Learning this, the blessed Saba not
only himself refused to touch the forbidden meat but advanced into the
midst of the gathering and bore witness, saying to everyone, 'If
anyone eats of that meat, this man cannot be a Christian', and he
prevented them all from falling into the Devil's snare. For this, the
men who had devised the deception threw him out of the village, but
after some time allowed him to return.

Saba was banished for his vehement espousal of Christianity, since
being so outspoken over such matters threatened to upset the
traditional social order of the village.

Saba eventually returned. Later, when a reiks visited from elsewhere,
village nobles attempted to conceal the fact that any Christians lived
in the village, since such village members would be an affront to the
authority of the reiks. Saba would not conceal his beliefs and spoke
out, whereupon the village elders protected other Christians by saying
that Saba was the only one in the village. The reiks mocked Saba for
his poverty, and again Saba was cast out.

Later Saba, along with a prebyter Sansalas, was taken captive by a
gang under the leadership of Atharid. They tortured Saba late into the
night and then left him. He was freed by a slave woman, but he refused
to flee. He was bound again and cursed Atharid, who subsequently
ordered him to be put to death. The story continues:
  	  	Those appointed to perform this lawless act left the presbyter
Sansalas in bonds, and took hold of Saba and led him away to drown him
in the river called the Mousaios.... When they came to the banks of
the river, his guards said to one another, 'Come now, let us set free
this fool. How will Atharidus ever find out?' But the blessed Saba
said to them, 'Why do you waste time talking nonsense and not do what
you were told to?...' Then they took him down to the water, still
thanking and glorifying God..., threw him in and, pressing a beam
against his neck, pushed him to the bottom and held him there.

So died Saba, though subverting at every moment the attempts of others
to help him. It thus appears that none at the village level were
involved in the decision-making process for the kuni, under the
direction of the reiks. At this lower level, Christianity was
tolerated, and converted relatives and friends were concealed and
assisted by their fellow villagers and family members. It was
apparently at the level of the kuni and the reiks that Christianity
threatened the socio-political order, and it was from this level that
persecution was enacted."

>From http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/gotol-7-X.html

(sorry if the information is not new)





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