It is celebrated on March 20 of each year.
The Monastery of Saint Savvas is located in Jerusalem. During the years of Heraklion (620 – 641 AD), barbaric Arabs attacked it, because they thought that the Monastery had many treasures. But, they were denied. The monks (44 according to tradition) the only wealth they had were their virtues. Their maintenance was simple and was done by the sweat of their brow. The raiders, when they found that there was no booty in the monastery, became very angry with the monks. And having gathered them together, they told them to deny their faith in Christ. But since no one was willing to deny their faith, they decided to kill them.
So some were beheaded, some were torn in half, some were cut into many pieces, and some were impaled with their swords. In this way, these Holy Fathers, who kept their faith firm until the end, took the road to eternity, close to Christ. That horrible massacre was described by Saint Stephen the Sabbatite, the nephew of Saint John of Damascus and Saint Antiochus the Pandectos. Saint Theoktistos is also mentioned among the Abbada saints. The memory of these oath-witnesses is repeated on May 16.
