Mar Saba (Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas)

The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic as Mar Saba, hangs on the wall of the Kidron gorge in the Judean Desert, roughly halfway between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. Seen from the opposite side of the ravine, it is a stack of honey-coloured walls, terraces, stairways and cells built into and onto the cliff, crowned by the blue dome of its main church and a small bell tower. Around it there is only bare, folded desert, and the sense of a fortress of prayer set against an empty landscape is what gives the place its extraordinary force.

The monastery was founded in 483 by the monk Sabbas, who gathered hermits in the caves of the gorge; the main church dedicated to the Mother of God followed around 502, and a second church dedicated to St Nicholas is cut into the rock. Mar Saba grew into one of the great centres of eastern monasticism, and it is counted among the oldest monasteries in the world to have been inhabited almost without interruption. Its most famous resident was John of Damascus, the eighth-century theologian and hymn-writer who spent years here writing the defence of icons during the Iconoclast controversy. The community suffered repeatedly: monks killed in the Persian invasion of the early seventh century are commemorated by the skulls kept in the sacristy, and a major earthquake in 1834 forced extensive rebuilding.

The body of Saint Sabbas, taken to Italy by Crusaders in the twelfth century, was returned by Pope Paul VI in the mid-1960s and now lies in a glass reliquary in the main church. A strict rule inherited from the founder's time is still kept: only men may enter the monastery. Women can climb the separate Women's Tower beside the entrance, which by tradition is linked with Sabbas's mother and gives a fine view over the complex and the gorge. Across the ravine, the cave where Sabbas lived as a hermit can still be seen in the cliff. The monastery is also known to scholars for its manuscript collection, which once held the Archimedes Palimpsest. Visitors are received at the door by the Orthodox monks, of whom there are now fewer than twenty; the monastery does not receive visitors on Wednesdays and Fridays, its fast days.

Getting there

Mar Saba lies about 15 km east of Bethlehem in the West Bank, reached by a paved road through Beit Sahour and down a steep descent into the desert; the nearest town in a straight line is Ma'ale Adummim, about 9 km away. The nearest international airport is Ben Gurion (TLV), about 54 km away.