Sabas (439–532), in Church parlance Saint Sabas or Sabbas the Sanctified, was a Cappadocian Greek monk, priest, grazer and saint, who was born in Cappadocia and lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several convents, most notably the one known as Mar Saba, in Palestine. The saint's name is derived from Imperial Aramaic: סַבָּא Sabbāʾ "old man".
Medieval icon of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified
The relics of St. Sabbas in the Catholicon (main church) of Mar Saba monastery, West Bank.
The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba and historically as the Great Laura of Saint Sabas, is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in the West Bank, at a point halfway between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. The monks of Mar Saba and those of subsidiary houses are known as Sabaites.
Mar Saba seen from the air
Tomb of Saint Sabbas
Mar Saba Monastery, 2011
The Women's Tower at Mar Saba Monastery is the only building on the grounds that women are allowed to enter.