The first question Dave asked when we rolled
into town was, ‘What does
 |
| Big horn sheep |
San Saba mean?’ Of course I didn’t know (it’s not
French or Italian – maybe Spanish?), so we asked the oracle (Google) and here’s
what we got: First, there is no translation from Spanish to English for Saba,
but San can mean saint. So going with our guess of Saint Saba, our second bit
of information told us that Saint Sabas was, according to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, a ‘Christian Palestinian monk, champion of orthodoxy in the
5th-century controversies over the nature of Christ. He founded the monastery
known as the Great Laura of Mar Saba, a renowned community of contemplative
monks in the Judean desert near Jerusalem. This community became a prototype
for the subsequent development of Eastern Orthodox monasticism.’ The Catholic
Encyclopedia pretty much agrees, ‘Basilian monk, hermit, founded the monastery
at Mar Saba near Jerusalem. Died 532.’ And if you were wondering, Mar Saba is
‘Old Man’ in Aramaic. There are at least five other saints named San Sabas. So how did Texas get a river, a county, and a
town named after a 5th century monk? I haven’t uncovered that piece
of information, yet!
