Sabinus of Spoleto

Sabinus of Assisi, also Sabinus of Spoleto (* in the 3rd century in Italy, † 303 in Spoleto ), was bishop of a church of Assisi, was arrested there in 303, was executed on December 7th in Spoleto and on 10 December, two buried miles off the city of Spoleto. His feast day is December 7. The martyr, is thought 1st and December 30th on July 7. His first name is derived from the people of the Sabines. He is the patron saint of the city of Assisi, Faenza, Fermo, Siena and Spoleto.

Life and Legend

His life before the martyrdom nothing is known except that he was bishop of a risk of persecution Christian community in Assisi. In the year 303 the Emperor Diocletian and Maximian ruled. Diocletian issued 303 a persecution edict, by which the last and most brutal wave of Roman persecution of Christians has been triggered. Venus Tian, Prefect of Tuscany and Umbria, let Sabinus and the two deacons Marcellus and Exsuperantius and other clergy arrested in Assisi.

At the trial the next day to Sabinus gave during interrogation by Venus Tian a quick-witted battle of words, so the prefect him finally presented the choice to sacrifice to the Roman gods or die in agony. Sabinus replied that he would be killed and die like his Lord Jesus Christ, that he may rise again like this. Then he offered the prefect, to show him how insignificant are the Roman gods. He took a small statue of Jupiter, and hurled it with such violence on the ground that they splintered into shards. The fraught with fear and terror prefect gave him then cut off both hands for his sacrilege. Then he let the deacons Marcellus and Exsuperantius tortured until they died in agony invoking Christ.

The condemnation of Sabinus was postponed. In prison he was visited and cared for by the elderly and pious widow Serena. Her grandson Priscianus was blind, but has been cured of Sabinus. Venus Tian also suffered from severe eye pain and was therefore call Sabinus to him and asked him for medicine for his body and his soul. The bishop gave him a few days teaching in the Christian faith with mutilated hands baptism. As the prefect was abruptly relieved of his pain, he left his wife and his two sons baptized. When Emperor Maximian heard about this, he sent the tribune Lucius to Assisi to decapitate the prefect and his family. Then he brought Sabinus to Spoleto for trial. He let this scourge until he breathed his last. The Serena widow had him buried two miles outside the city. As a result, they brought his remains to Faenza.

Worship

Sabinus was soon worshiped high. Well attested is his worship in the church, which was built in the 5th century on the traditional site of his tomb in front of the town of Spoleto. His grave was an important place of pilgrimage, he was one of the most popular saints in central Italy. In mosaics in Ravenna from the beginning of the 6th century, he is shown. In the Middle Ages relics were transferred to many cities in central Italy that his boast as bishop or hermit, such as Assisi or Fermo, which preserves the tradition that they have received the relics of Pope Gregory the Great, which made ​​one of his written letter to the then Bishop of Fermo could be closed. Relics of Sabinus came in 1191 after wind mountain near Straubing in Bavaria.

Sabinus worship in Germany

There is only one church in Germany with the Sabinus - patronage: the Sabine Church in Prenzlau, first documented in 1250 as St. Sabini.

The reason for this patronal feast of the church in Sabine Prenzlau Julius Boehmer has examined: " The Prenzlauer Saint - sabinene Church in the medieval diocese of Pomerania " ( Prenzlau 1936). Since the Sabine church belonged to the diocese of Pomerania in the Middle Ages, he has asked the question: "How it behaved with the worship of the Holy Sabinus in the medieval diocese of Pomerania? " He therefore all traditional medieval liturgical documents ( four Missal Books and six Breviere ) of the Diocese of Pommern examined, which also Prenzlau and the monastery Rough ( also included with Sabinus worship ). In these documents Sabinus is referred to as a martyr. He therefore concludes his investigation on page 30 with the sentence: " It is therefore necessary and is also the name Sankt - sabinene Church, which is after the saint of Assisi Sabinus, Bishop and Martyr, called her name in bisexual form Sabinen for all obtain future. "

The Prenzlauer tradition raises a single reason why the Sabine church was dedicated as the only church in Germany a relatively unknown Sabinus that Sabinus the patron saint against floods is because the oldest settlement Prenzlau the Sabine Church at the outflow of the Ucker from the Unteruckersee was to flooding, in Unlike Assisi and Spoleto in their distinctive altitudes. However, this patron saint against floods is the Holy Sabinus of Piacenza, who was, however, not a martyr. This contradiction was Boehmer has not engaged. He has, however, clarified that it is not about a saint Sabine in Sabine Church.