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==Life==
He was born in Mutalaska, near [[Caesarea ]] in Cappadocia of pious Christian parents, John and Sophia, during the year 439. His father was a military commander. Traveling to Alexandria on military matters, his wife went with him, but they left their five-year-old son in the care of an uncle. When the boy reached eight years of age, he entered the [[monastery]] of St. Flavian located nearby. The gifted child quickly learned to read and became an expert on the [[Bible|Holy Scripture]]s. In vain did his parents urge St. Sabbas to return to the world and enter into marriage.
When he was seventeen years old he received [[monastic]] [[ tonsure]], and attained such perfection in [[fast]]ing and [[prayer]] that he was given the gift of wonderworking. In 456, after spending ten years at the monastery of St. Flavian, he traveled to Jerusalem, and from there to the monastery of [[Euthymius the Great|St. Euthymius the Great]] ([[January 20]]). But St. Euthymius sent St. Sabbas to Abba Theoctistus, the head of a nearby monastery that practiced a strict [[cenobitic]] rule. St. Sabbas lived in obedience at this monastery until the age of thirty.