Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/526

 SARA

468

SARAGOSSA

(Ratisbon. 1873 and 1886), 405-406, 415-416; Theiner, Monumenia Slavorum, I, nos. 148, 153; II, nos. 233, 219; Hoffer in Zeitschrift fur kath. Theol. (Innsbruck, 1895), 360 (1896), 164; MiHACEVic, Serafinski Perivoj, XXIII, 126; Markovic, Dukljansko-barska metropolija (Agram, 1902), 47-50.

Anthony Lawrence Gancevic.

(~^u, princess; another form, *'"ir, Sarai, the signification of which is doubtful, is found in pas- sages occurring before Gen., x^-ii, 15). Sara was the wife of Abraham and also his step-sister (Gen., xii, 15; XX, 12). We do not find any other account of her parentage. When Abraham goes down to Egypt be- cause of the famine, he induces Sara, who though sixty-five j'ears of age is very beautiful, to say that she is his sister; whereupon she is taken to wife by the King of Egji^t, who, however, restores her after a Divine admonition (Gen., xii). In a variant account (Gen., xx), she is represented as being taken in simi- lar circumstances bj' Abimelech, King' of Gerara, and restored hkewise to Abraham through a Divine inter- vention. After having been barren till the age of ninety, Sara, in fulfilment of a Divine promise, gives birth to Isaac (Gen., xxi, 1-7). Later we find her through jealousy ill-treating her handmaiden Agar the Egyptian, who had borne a child to Abraham, and finally she forces the latter to drive away the bond- woman and her son Ismael (Gen., xxi). Sara lived to the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, and at her death was buried in the cave of Macphelah in Hebron (Gen., xxiii). Isaias, li, 2, alludes to Sara as the mother of the chosen people; St. Peter praises her submission to her husband (I Pet., iii, 6). Other New Testament references to Sara are in Rom., iv, 19; ix, 9; Gal., iv, 22-23; Heb., xi, 11.

VoN" Hl'mmelauer, Comment, in Genesim, passim.

James F. Driscoll.

Sarabaites, a class of monks widely spread before the time of St. Benedict. They either continued, like the early a.scetics, to live in their own homes, or dwelt two or three together in or near cities. They ac- knowledged no monastic superior, obeyed no definite rule, and dispo.sed individual!}^ of the product of their manual labour. St. Jerome speaks of them under the name of Remoboth, and John Cassian tells of their wide diffusion in Egj-pt and other lands. Both writers ex^iress a verj^ unfavourable opinion concerning their conduct, and a reference to them in the Rule of St. Benedict (c. i) is of similar import. At a later date the name Sarahaites, the original meaning of which cannot be determined, designated in a general way degenerate monks.

St. Jerome, Eput., xxii, 34; Cassian, Coll., xviii, 4, 7; Funk, tr. Cappadelta, Church History, I, 213.

N. A. Weber.

Saragossa, Diocese of (CiESARAUGusTANA), in Spain, comprises a great part of the civil Prov- ince of Saragos.sa (Zaragoza). It is bounded on the north by Navarre and Huesca; on the east by Huesca, L6rida, and Tarragona; on the south by Valencia and Teruel; on the west by Gua- dalajara and Soria. The episcopal city, situated on tli(' lObro, has 72,(XX) inhabitants. Before the Roman period the site of Saragossa appears to have been occupied by Salduba, a little village of Edetania, within the boundaries of Celtiberia. Here in a. u. c. 727 Octavius Augustus, then in his seventh consulate, founded the colony of Ca;.sar Augusta, giving it the Italian franchi.se and making it the cai)ilalof a juridi- cal coni'en<u.s. Pomponias Mela called it "the most illustrious of the inland cities of Hispania Tarra- conen.sis". In a.d. 452 it fell under the power of the Suevian king Reciarius; in 400 under that of the Visi- goth Euric. St. Isidore extolled it as one of the best cities of Spain in the Gothic period, and Pacensis called it "the most ancient and most flourishing".

The diocese is one of the oldest in Spain, for ita

origin dates back to the coming of the Apostle James — a fact of which there had never been any doubt until Baronius, influenced by a fabulous story of Garcia de Loaisa, called it in question. Urban VIII ordered the old lesson in the Breviary dealing with this point to be restored (see Compostela). Closely involved with the tradition of St. James's coming to Spain, and of the founding of the church of Sara- gossa, are those of Our Lady of the Pillar (see Pilar, NuESTRA Senora del) and of Sts. Athanasius and Theodore, disciples of St. James, who arc supposed to have been the first bishops of Saragossa. About the year 250 there appears as bishop of this diocese Felix Caesaraugustanus, who defended true discipline in the case of Basilides and Martial, Bishops, respec-

Faqade of the Old Cathedkal, Saragossa

tively, of Astorga and M6rida. St. Valerius, who assisted at the Council of Iliberis, was bishop from 290 to 315 and, together with his disciple and deacon St. Vincent, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Dacian. It is believed that there had been mart yrs at Saragossa in previous persecutions, aa Prudentius seems to affirm; but no certain record is to be found of any before this time, when, too, St. Engratia and the "numberless saints" {sanlos innurnerahlcs), aa they are called, gained their crowms. It is said that Dacian, to detect and so make an end of all the faith- ful of Saragossa, ordered that liberty to practise their religion .should be promised them on condition that they all went, out of the city at a certain fixed time and by certain designated gates. As soon as they had thus gone forth, he ordered them to be put to the sword and their corp.ses burned. Their ashes were mixe(l with those of criminals, so that no vener- ation might be paid them. But a shower of rain fell and washed the ashes apart, forming those of the martyrs into certain white masses. These, known as the "holy nui-sses" (las mnlas inasas), were depos- ited in the cryj)t of the church dedicated to St. En- gratia, where they are still preserved. St. Vincent was taken to Valencia, where he Buf-