Saint Savvas the Sanctified in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Savvas lived during the reign of Theodosius the Younger, in a village of Cappadocia called Mutalaske, and his parents’ names were John and Sophia. From the very beginning of his life he turned to the monastic way, entering a monastery called Flavianae. He became so self-restrained from an early age that once, when he saw an apple in the garden and desired it, he said: "Fair to the sight and good for food was the fruit that put me to death." He took the apple in his hands, but did not eat it; instead, he trampled it under his feet and made it a rule for himself never to eat an apple again. Once, even when he entered a furnace, he came out unharmed, without the fire touching even his garments. At the age of eighteen he was met by the great Saint Euthymios, who sent him to a cenobium, to Saint Theoktistos. From everyone he encountered, he received and learned their manners and their virtue. Seeing him, Saint Euthymios would address him as a "child-elder," because of his spiritual maturity far beyond the common measure. As he grew older, his virtue increased as well. For this reason he performed many miracles — he even drew water by his prayer in barren places. He became the teacher of many monks, and when he came to Constantinople, he twice sent envoys both to Emperors Anastasios and to Justinian, at the request of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem of his time. He reached the very height of life in Christ and, at the age of ninety-four, departed to the Lord.

Homily for the Commemoration of our Venerable Father Savvas the Sanctified (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of our Venerable Father Savvas the Sanctified

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

I congratulate you all on the feast day of the creator of our liturgical typikon, Saint Savvas the Sanctified! He found favor with God in the fifth century, defending the Church from the heresy of Monophysitism, and thanks to his struggles and labors, the Church of Jerusalem remains the mother of all Churches to this day. The Church of Jerusalem did not succumb to Monophysitism, although many patriarchs of that time, under pressure from emperors and heretics, were drawn to heresy. Saint Savvas not only defended the true Orthodox faith but also set a rule for us to live by. This rule of Christian life is called the Typikon. Today, we should talk a little about our affairs, our rule. People often complain that nothing works out for them, that everything seems to fall through their fingers, and they conclude that God has forgotten them. Such words are sinful and must be confessed; they testify to a lack of faith in God’s providence and show that we know better than God how to live.

December: Day 5: Teaching 2: Venerable Savvas the Sanctified

December: Day 5: Teaching 2:
Venerable Savvas the Sanctified
 
(About the Tenth Commandment of the Law of God, Which Prohibits Impure Thoughts and Desires)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast of our Venerable and God-bearing Father Savvas the Sanctified, who led a holy life and was so attentive to his spiritual state that he subjected every thought, every desire, every feeling, and the slightest movement of his heart to careful self-condemnation, lest he sin before the Lord not only in deed or word, but also in thought, it would be appropriate, my brethren, to reflect on whether we treat our thoughts and the desires of our hearts with the same caution with which the Venerable Savvas the Sanctified treated them, and whether we commit sins directly and clearly forbidden by the Tenth Commandment of the law of God.

December: Day 5: Teaching 1: Venerable Savvas the Sanctified

 

December: Day 5: Teaching 1:
Venerable Savvas the Sanctified
 
(Are We Good Children of the Church?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Savvas, known as "the Sanctified," whose memory is celebrated today, was working one day in a vineyard, cleaning the vines, digging around their roots and watering them with water, which he himself carried from afar with great difficulty. Exhausted by the hot rays of the eastern sun, drenched in his own sweat, he, like a youth, felt great hunger and thirst, leaned against the shade of a nearby tree and raised his heated forehead to heaven. At the top of the tree Savvas saw a beautiful ripe apple, which was now very useful to him for strengthening his strength and for quenching his thirst and hunger. The young gardener plucked the apple and wanted to taste it, but suddenly the thought occurred to him that the time determined for eating the fruit had not yet come. "Temptation!" Savvas said to himself, examining the fruit. "Behold, the apple of paradise was also beautiful and good; but it destroyed my forefathers: they tasted it and thereby transgressed the commandment of God. Do I not now want to do the same thing that our forefathers did in paradise? After all, I too am forbidden by the Holy Church to taste this fruit now... No, as long as I live until my death I will not eat apples because this apple tempted me and almost made me disobedient!" And despite the agonizing hunger and thirst, the wise youth threw the tempting fruit to the ground and led a most restrained and cautious life, subjecting every thought, every feeling and deed to strict analysis and self-condemnation. Of course, he knew that it is not a sin to eat apples; he even remembered the apostolic word that a laboring worker must first taste the fruits of his labor: but he preferred obedience to both hunger and thirst, and to the beauty of a ripe apple.

Synaxarion of Venerable Sophia, Mother of Venerable Savvas the Sanctified

 

By Hieromonk Euphrosynos the Hagiosabbaite

 

 On the 18th of this month [December], we commemorate Venerable Sophia, the mother according to the flesh of Venerable Savvas the Sanctified.

Verses

Land of Bethlehem bury the body of Sophia,
Land of the meek receive the soul of the venerable one.
On the eighteenth Sophia gladly flew away from life.

Synaxarion

 

This Venerable gave birth to Venerable Savvas the Sanctified, around the year 439, during the reign of Theodosius the Younger, in the village of Moutalaske in Cappadocia. Because her husband John was a soldier in the higher offices of the Roman military, he was transferred to Egypt, where Sophia followed him, and they lived there until his death. Around the year 491, when the Venerable was at an old age, she heard about the accomplishments of her son, so she went to the desert of Judea, where she offered all her possessions to the Venerable. Savvas, because his Lavra was to be untrodden by women, sent her to the Coenobium of Venerable Paula in Bethlehem, where Sophia struggled well, and attained to a perfect measure of virtue. A few years later, during the reign of Empreror Anastasios, she reposed peacefully in the Lord, and buried in a venerable coffin by Savvas, and with the money of his mother, Savvas founded a metochion in Jericho, for the respite of the Fathers. After the translation of the relics of the Venerable, the Fathers built a small hesychasterion in her honor next to the Lavra, and there they placed her relics. However, due to security reasons, they were transferred to the Monastery during the abbacy of Joasaph the Cretan (1835-1874), where they were hidden in an unknown crypt within the Monastery. A small portion of her relic is preserved in an old reliquary within the Skeuophylakion.

The First Cell of Saint Savvas the Sanctified

The first cell of Saint Savvas the Sanctified is a natural cave located in the upper part of a vertical cleft in the rock over 6 m high. It is located on the eastern bank of the Kidron, opposite the Lavra of Saint Savvas (Mar Saba), southeast of it. According to legend, it was this cave that was indicated to Savvas by an angel for a monastic feat if he wished to “turn the desert into a city.”

Today the entrance to the cell is through the lower cave along two ladders. The lower cave, with an area of 3.1 x 2.8 m, has a concrete wall with an iron door. A paved path leads to the door from the lower gate of Mar Saba.