From the Prologue of Ochrid
The insignificant village of Mutalask in the region of Cappadocia became renowned because of this great luminary of the Orthodox Church. There Sabas was born of father John and mother Sophia. In his eighth year he left his parents' home and became a monk in a nearby monastery, called Flavian's. After 10 years he went to the Palestinian monasteries, and there he stayed longest in the monastery of Saint Euthymius the Great (see January 20) and Theoctistus. The farsighted Euthymius prophesied concerning him that he would be a glorious monk and teacher of monks, and that he would found a lavra greater than all the lavras of that time. After the death of Saint Euthymius, Sabas withdrew to the desert, where in a cave which the angel of God showed him, he spent five years as a hermit. After that, when he became a perfect monk, there began, by God's Providence, to gather around him many seekers of the spiritual life. Soon they gathered in such great number that Sabas had to build both a church and many cells. Some Armenians also came to him, for whom he appointed a cave where they would serve in the Armenian language. When his father died, his aged mother Sophia came to him, whom he tonsured as a nun, and he gave her a cell away from his monastery, where she struggled until the end of her life. This holy father endured many afflictions from close people, from heretics, and from demons. But he conquered all, namely: close people by kindness and lenience, heretics by unshakable Orthodox confession of faith, and demons by the sign of the cross and calling upon God for help. He had especially great struggle with demons on Mount Castellium, where he founded his second monastery. He founded seven monasteries altogether. He and Theodosius the Great, his neighbor, were considered the greatest luminaries and pillars of Orthodoxy in the East. Emperors and patriarchs they corrected in the faith, and to all and everyone they ministered by example of saintly humility and the miraculous power of God. After a laborious and very fruitful life, Saint Sabas reposed in the year 532, in the ninety-fourth year of his life. Among many other miraculous and good works, let it be mentioned only that he was the first to arrange the order of divine services in monasteries, known by the name of the order of the Jerusalem Church.
