On December 5th we commemorate our Holy Father Sabbas, the Sanctified, and Hegemon-Abbot. He was born in 439 in Moutalaska, a small village of Cappadocia. He entered monastic life as a young man and was tutored by the monastic, Euthymius the Great, the teacher of the desert. Later in life, he became the spiritual father of many monks and a monastery instructor in Palestine. He established 7 monasteries. He was appointed leader or Archimandrite of the desert-dwellers of Palestine by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He was also the first to compile the Order of Services for use in monasteries, now known as the Jerusalem Typicon. In his old age he went to Constantinople, on behalf of the Orthodox Faith, to correct emperors, like Anastasias and Saint Justinian the Great, on matters of the Faith. He died at age 94, in the year 533 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great.
