Bacchus of Mar Saba
Feast: 15 December (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Bacchus, whose real name was Dahhat ("the cheerful one"), was born into a Christian Palestinian family. When his relatives apostatised to Islam, he withdrew to the laura of Saint Sabas near Bethlehem, taking the name Bacchus. Returning to Jerusalem, he managed to bring his brothers back to the Christian faith, but one of them denounced him to the Muslim authorities for his excessive zeal, and Bacchus was beheaded in 786 or 787.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
Palestinian monk of Mar Saba beheaded for his faith after reconverting his own brothers to Christianity; died 786–787, feast 15 December.
- Santi, beati e testimoni (santiebeati.it) - San Bacco (Dahhat) il Giovane, by Paola Cristofari
- Wikidata Q116643793 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.