December 5: Saint Sabas

St. Sabas the Sanctified

History

When Saint Sabas was very small, his father had to go away with the army, so he left Sabas with an uncle. The uncle’s wife was not very kind, so Sabas ran away when he was only 8 years old. He went to live with another uncle, but when the two uncles started quarrelling over Sabas’ inheritance, he ran away again, this time to a monastery. After a while, his uncles reached an agreement – they wanted Sabas to get married! But he wanted to live alone with Christ, so he stayed with the monks. Later on, he organized a lavra, a kind of monastery were each monk lives in his own little one-room house or cave, and the brothers only get together on Sunday for Holy Communion. His lavra is now the oldest operating lavra still in existence in the world today, even though an earthquake destroyed a lot of it in the 1843.

Activity

Saint Sabas knew how important it was to take time apart from other people to pray. During Advent, it’s really, really easy to get so busy, we forget to pray. Today, take a little bit of time where each member of the family can be alone to pray (parents may need to tag-team if there are very young children in the household). When you pray, remember to ask Saint Sabas to pray that you will have time every day to pray, especially on the busy days.

Saint Sabas, pray for us!

More reading for parents:

Catholic Encyclopedia

American Catholic

Catholic Online

SPECIAL NOTE: Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day. In our family, we always hang our stockings on the night of December 5, and the children awake to find notes in their stocking that identify the gifts they have received from God (honesty, empathy, creativity, courage, etc.) and how they have used those gifts in the past year, plus a word of advice on how to grow in the coming year. What traditions are right for your family on this special day?