Mar Sabas Monastery.jpg

 

Mar Sabas Monastery

 

Mar Saba was founded by Sabas in 483 A.D. and became the largest monastery. Sabas started or participated in the construction of ten monasteries, eight of them in the Judean desert. Mar Saba was a laura-type monastery, which served as the center for monks who lived separately throughout the week but gathered together on weekends for communal prayer and mass. Most monasteries were abandoned following the Muslim conquest, but Mar Saba was one of the few monasteries that continued to survive. An earthquake destroyed much of the monastery in 1834; a great deal of it had to be reconstructed.