The Life of Saint Abda

It is not important to know the origin of his name "Abda"; is it of a Syriac origin "Abad", or from an Arabic origin "The Worship"meaning praying to God and dedicating himself to him and serving him. Was he named "Abda" because he prayed and worshiped God day and night? Perhaps. What's important for us to know is who is that man? In which era he lived his life and died, and what country is he from? Who did he take holy orders from, and how did he work among the people and his God, what miracles did he perform and how did he disseminate Jesus' religion and what type of Christian mission did he practice in his life to reach this level of hierarchy.

Abda was born in Persia (today it is known as Iran) in the end of the first century of Christianity. He met Judas the apostle, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, and from him he learned of the Biblical studies and obtained the strength and blessing for his apostolic work. Moreover, equipped with the virtues of modesty and courage, in addition to the enthusiasm to disseminate the Bible and plant it everywhere, he turned the Pagans to the worship of Jesus, baptizing and watching over them, and accompanied them in their new Christianity.

That's what motivated his master Judas the apostle to promote him to the diocese level and give a free hand to go around preaching. He appointed him as an Archbishop over the city of Khashkär (Khash-kär) in the territory of Babylon where he took over the diocese and organize the city's affairs. He established churches in the city and appointed priests to administer and govern its Christians affairs and corroborate their faith and send them out to preach the belief in Jesus.

In order for his work not to remain limited to his city Khashkär, and after he had established the support of faith and appointed the priests as its pastors, he thought about traveling to a far place where there is no mention of Jesus and where Paganism and the worship of golden calves and the natural elements existed. Therefore, he headed to the city of Nawa, located in India, passing through a number of cities and villages where the inhabitants were known for their disbelief, atheism and Paganism. Upon his attempt to preach and turn them to faith in Jesus, they struck him and pelted him with stones. He moved towards them saying:

"Are these your Gods' teachings? Do you worship Gods that instigate you to kill people? Don't you see the difference between the one that instigate you to pelt a person with stones and kill him and the one that calls upon love including loving the enemies and those that do harm to us?"

Following these words, some people were persuaded and followed him; others became furious and flamed up with rage and pelted him with stones again. Nevertheless, he passed through them and went away praying and asking God for help.

Upon his arrival to the vicinity of another city, unaware of the dangers, he was unexpectedly faced with a monstrous dragon that was killing the inhabitants and the shepherds and every person that was passing through, attacking and biting them. He forced the inhabitants and people passing through from leaving the city, and would not allow them to travel through the jungles where the terrifying dragon lived.

Just as the dragon was attacking the inhabitants of the city and the people passing through, he attacked Saint Abda, wanting to eat him. However, the Saint turned to God and asked his master Jesus Christ for help. He drew his sword and pushed it forward towards the dragon, hitting his heart, and it bled to death and fell down in front of the Saint. The city survived this animal, so the inhabitants came towards Saint Abda thanking him for his intercession, so he told them:

"I do not want any reward or remuneration from you. It is not me that killed the dragon, but it is Jesus that killed it. Therefore, come and have faith in him and I will baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

They were four thousand and gathered near a river, and with humility and faith the Saint approached each one of them and baptized them then sent them out to build the faith in their country.

Upon the Saint's return from there to his city Khashkär to resume his duty as a bishop as well as his mission, he was unexpectedly faced with a monstrous snake crawling and winding towards him, as if it has found a delicious meal. He stood in front of it holding his cross and praying:

"In the name of this cross I command you to leave in peace and never come back and terrify the people as well as the travelers…"

The snake startled as if it has come in contact with something, then fidgeted within itself, went on and entered in a hole in the ground and disappeared from there forever.

Abda was given the blessing of endurance, so he proceeded with his journey as quickly as he could and without fear. It is true that from a distance he saw the enemies of the religion and Jesus ambushing him and waiting for his arrival, to heap up on him with beatings, punching and pelting him with stones. It is also true that their priests had started to become furious with him for the numerous renegades that he was causing, and the thousands of baptisms that he was performing in each city and village that he entered. As he continued to preach and perform miracles, he diminish their authority in their society, resulting in the divergence of some of their followers and advocates… Nevertheless he moved on, accompanied by his master Jesus Christ, who strengthened him and intensified his will.

Again, Abda entered the outskirts of another large city where he was welcomed by some people that had heard about him and his doings. Others fled away frightened by their priests. Then, from a distance, he saw a large crowd of people quivering and its individuals were fleeing in all directions, screaming, terrified and frightened. Abda approached them, asking the reason for all their fear. They beckoned him to disappear so that he wouldn't get exposed to the pelting with stones as they had. He did not need their warnings, and moved forward until he saw a man with torn clothes, protruded teeth, long hair that hang down his face and back and shoulders, his eyes blazing like a fire. He had long fingernails attached to the tips of his cramped fingers that were cutting the skin of people as they ran from him. He was barefoot and bloodstains covered his torn clothes and thighs. His skin was covered with mud stains from head to toe. He was persistently moving and aggressively attacking every person that he could. Then he turned to a second person, then a third, and a fourth without anyone having the courage to capture him. The madman's reputation had become widespread in the city, and the vicinity and the outskirts. Many people avoided him, while others that were unaware of his existence got trapped.

As Abda arrived he heard the people shouting:

"He's possessed with the devil, get away from him. He's a beast in the form of a human being. What is this curse from the Gods?"

He heard others from another side shouting and calling their Gods for help:

"Our Gods, save us from this horrible man, save us from his devils, kill him and save our city. Our Gods, don't you hear our appeals for help?"

Abda said to them:

"People, what seems to be the problem? Why are you frightened like that? Who is that madman? I will knock all the devils out of him with one signal. Do you agree?"

They all replied:

"All of our Gods have been incapable of calming him down, so how would this agitated madman calm down from your signal?"

Abda said to them:

"Your Gods are dead and my God is alive, so come here and refrain from praying to your pagan Gods."

He then fell upon the possessed man, and before the man could stick his long sharp fingernails into the Saint's body, Abda raised his hand in which he held the cross, and with complete calmness before the crowd that had become speechless and dreaded in consequence of this matter, Abda said:

"In the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of this cross I command you to calm down. I command you, Satan, to leave this wretched man's body, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit…"

Immediately, the man quivered, shivered and fidgeted upon himself. The nerves in his arms and legs cramped out. Then gradually, he returned to himself, calm, but concerned and frightened of the crowd gathered around him. He felt bashful about his nudity, and asked for forgiveness and left to return to his house, a rational and prudent man following Saint Abda in his mission and preaching. The crowd of people kneeled down at once before the miraculous man that's held the cross and said to him simultaneously:

"Sir, we need to follow what you're holding in your hand. He is the only mighty and powerful God."

Abda said to them:

"What would you like me to do?"

They replied:

"We do not know your protocols but we wish to become like you."

He said to them:

"I am Christian. Do you wish to become Christians?"

They all replied:

"Yes, yes and now."

He then led them to a nearby water pond in which they walked until it was filled with them. Abda began passing through their rows and baptized each one of them as he carried a handful of water and poured it out on each person's head saying:

"So-and-so I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit…"

They all came out of the pond with him, shouting "Hail Jesus", and spread out everywhere to propagate the miracle and talk about Christ's omnipotence.

Saint Abda was fervid with enthusiasm about Christ's religion; he lived his faith every moment; rather, he used to conceptualize Christ and dream about him every night. He would kneel down before him praying, meditating and privately saying: "Are there any happier people than I am on this earth? Also, does anyone have faith in Christ the way I do… I sense him within my inner self and within every cell of my body; Lord, keep the blaze of faith in me and do not let the arrogance deprave my imagination…"
For that purpose, he never abated from preaching in Christ and the hideous dangers he encountered. However, he chose the horrible places that threatened him and the people that wished him evil and planned the ambushes and the conspiracies.

He learned that the city of Khashkär, the city of his parish, and the city that he loved and had done a lot for, had been afflicted with a terrible relapse and the conditions of the Christian life had deteriorated during his absence. He immediately headed for it, unaware of the evils and what the enemies of faith and love wished for him. Upon his entry to the city, to visit it and offer assistance and counseling to the needy, he was confronted by a group of atheists and infidels. An argument took place and they cursed him as well as his beliefs. He called upon them to bridle their tongues from infidelity and blasphemy saying to them:

"I am here among you to bring Christ back to you and reconcile you with God! Why do you get agitated and blasphemous?"

They replied:

"Get away from here. You have no place among us!"

So he said:

"But I am among you as your brother, loving and serving you as well as warding the devil off of you!"

So they said:

"Get away from here, or else we will kill you and irrigate the soil with your blood."

So he replied:

"I will not leave before I content you again with embrace, come to me brothers, come to your master Jesus Christ."

They fell upon him, beating and pelting him with stones. He escaped from them under a downpour of stones falling on him. Nevertheless, God protected him from these agitated people. He vanished from them for a while, but they finally managed to capture him. They hurled him in their dark jail and locked the doors.

As time passed, so that the sorcery turned against the sorcerer, a gruesome ailment attacked the city and eradicated many people, and the rest were enormously frightened. They thought of the Saint and said among them that the ailment was a punishment from God. "We have oppressed a faithful man. Let us demand from our king to release him so that the Gods might indulge us and eliminate this deadly epidemic."
The king of the country had never been frightened, but he was horrified by the congregation, so he immediately summoned the prisoner Abda. After he contemplated him standing before him with a bowed head, having his arms crossed, humbled and silent, the king asked him saying:

• "Prisoner, are you capable of stopping this gruesome epidemic from the city?"

• "Yes Your Majesty, the King, but it is not me who can do it, rather it is my Master."

• "Who is your Master?"

• "My Master Jesus Christ who said: I am with you, do not be frightened."

• "And who is Jesus Christ that has all this power to protect an entire city from a widespread epidemic eradicating thousands of people?"

• "He is the Son of God; he is who said one day: I am the light, the divine right and the life… He is the one that cured the blind and the crippled, and knocked the devils out of the possessed people! He is the one that spoke with the King and associated with the poor and the sinners, he disputed with the scientists and the heads of priests… Indeed, Jesus Christ is the one that called on the people to love each other and to even love their enemies… This is my Master, Your Majesty, the King."

At that moment, the King turned around towards the congregation and ministers and the crowd that waited patiently for his verdict. He read in their eyes the drastic desire for the King to command Abda to intervene with his Master Jesus so he might save the city from the danger that claimed many people's lives. So he said to him:

"Faithful man, do as you wish and we are your followers, the congregation and the whole Kingdom as well as me, but beware of betraying us as you will face certain death."

Abda kneeled down before the King, the attendants as well as the congregation and the throng, and raised his hands towards heaven with eyes shed with tears and said:

"My Lord Jesus Christ, these people that are dying from this epidemic are our brothers, and you were the merciful and the loving, extend your right on them and bless the city and stop the epidemic… Didn't you say: Come to me all exhausted people and the people that are carrying heavy loads and I will comfort you? So those people are exhausted. Bless them and ward off the danger from them… Amen".

Then Abda bowed down until his lips touched the soil, and he kissed it thrice. He got up before the astonished crowd, then he took a water vessel, blessed it with prayers and began sprinkling the attendees with it and also spraying the ground that they set foot on and around them. He then turned around towards the heart of the city to bless it and sanctify it for the Trinity…

The Saint took off from between them just like the prophets take off from between the hands of the Kings, and silence reigned supreme in addition to dread and confusion as though the whole group was certain what was going to happen on the miraculous man's hands… Then the arena became vacant to everything but faith…

A few days passed, and then the good health began to creep into the bodies and the situation of the city Khashkär began to clear, hour after hour, and finally the epidemic began to diminish little by little…
The city and its inhabitants and the vicinity had become good… And then those atheists and infidels hurried to the Saint demanding to be baptized to become Christians, so Saint Abda fulfilled their wish with gladness and bliss. There were approximately two thousand people being baptized where they concluded their ceremony with a mass prayer that the Saint taught them, hence the city of Khashkär had become Christian in its entirety. Saint Abda became the Father of the city and its authoritative source, asking his advice, especially the mothers who would bring their children forward for him to bless and sanctify them to God. Therefore, he was known as the patron Saint of children and their intimate friend.

Nevertheless, the evil hands had not completely vanished from the neighborhood, and the devil remained hiding in the corners as well as in some souls. The possessed came spreading fake stories about the Bishop Abda in the city until it prevailed, and was widespread so that it reached the ears of the King. They then went on making up one fake story following another, and saying that the Bishop was secretly working to overthrowing the King, taking over the palace. That Abda was forcibly and with bribery baptizing people…
Abda kept silent before these false accusations and lies, working on his prayers, hope and mission. Until the King called for him into his royal palace, complaining about his conduct, threatening and enraged, so the Saint said to the King:

• "Your Majesty I appeal to you to pray, as through it alone you shall see the truth."

• "But there are a lot of witnesses bearing descriptions of the accusations."

• "I do not do anything other than what God wishes me to do. My God only wishes for me to love the kinsmen and work for their good deed."

• "Is it true that you are forcibly granting baptisms for those who do not request it?"

• "Baptism is sacred and what is sacred shall not be given except for those interested."

• "And what about the thousands of people that you are baptizing every now and then?"

• "Your Majesty, You are the King of the country and you have investigators. Let them query anyone they desire to see if this accusation is true!"

As the King was unable to sense any truth from these accusations, the accusers made more accusations themselves, so they became intensified with urgency and wrath and began shouting and threatening, until the King felt embarrassed, losing his patience and ordered Saint Abda's imprisonment again. They imprisoned him and the King's executioners assiduously tortured and agonized him.

The executioners successively humiliated and subjugated him; he was always praying before them and asked Jesus for his forgiveness and remission for them. They intensified their disbelief, and their rage grew. Following the King's request, he was brought outside of the prison's courtyard to be agonized before the people. He was joined by many of his disciples, as well as some children and virgins opposing torturing that sainted man who had saved the people from many catastrophes, and from the dragon and the snake. He had also cured the ill and restored sight to the blind… The executioners grew worried about the disciples' appeals and the innocent pleas from weeping children.

Fearing that the number of the Saint's followers would continue to increase and the wrath that intensified upon them hour after hour, the executioners hurried and chopped his head off, then killed seven of his monks and nine virgins of his disciples along with him…
There was a fearful silence following the martyrdom of Abda that reached the utmost of the city, so many people had wept and became attached to him. Abda became the symbol of love, and the place where he died under the sword of the executioner became a sanctuary where people would go to get his blessing.

Even now, Saint Abda remains the patron of many people and the symbol of faith and resistance, and the example of love and duty.
He is well beloved, and a sanctuary and joy of children; they relate to him, and they demand his intercession so that he would always fulfill their demands as well as their mother's. That's what every visitor to Saint Abda, as well as the local natives and the thousands of mothers and women that come to his church and grotto barefoot, witness; their eyes are bright with hope and life, going back to their homes filled with faith, and in the midst of joy and hope.

Compiled and translated from Arabic by John R. Khattar.