Stephen the Sabaite
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Saint Stephen the Sabaite. (725–796) was a Christian monk from Julis, a district of Gaza. He was a nephew of John of Damascus and spent a half-century in the convent of Mar Saba.
Towards the end of his life, Stephen, then living in Palestine, reported that various cities, Gaza among them, were laid waste to and depopulated by the Saracens (another name for the Muslim Caliphate under the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, referenced in Acta martyrum Sabaitarum, AASS Mart. III, p. 167). On this occasion many monks of St. Sabas met their deaths.
The events of the time are recorded in the writings of Leontius in Saint Stephen' biography titled The Life of St. Stephen the Sabaite.
