Spiritual Poetry (Sasuliero Poezia)

John, son of Sabani. On the seventh of January. The martyrdom of the holy martyr Habo, who was martyred in Kartli, in the city of Tbilisi, by the hand of the Saracens. Composed by John, son of Sabani, by order of Christ, through Samuel, Catholicos of Kartli. The fourth chapter. Praise of the holy martyr Habo. Now let us come, believers in Christ, and celebrate the memory of this new holy martyr, whom Christ has granted to us as an intercessor for all this land of Kartli. And with great joy let us open the doors of our hearts and minds, and with joyful face and clear tongue let us praise his virtuous struggle, and let us say: Rejoice, blessed martyr, because of your garment. For you, this last confessor of our Savior of the eleventh hour, have equaled those ancient confessors and have not fallen short of them in reward. Rejoice, martyr, because of your garment. You have imitated that last apostle Paul by casting off the laws and customs of the Magi and by confessing Christ, the Son of God, and like him you have offered your head. Now, if someone were to praise you worthily, truly worthy of praise, I desire to praise you, O all-praised martyr of Christ.

But I dare not, for the praise of your virtues has risen above the understanding of my mind, and I am afraid to proceed, for with the blessed love of Christ you loved me while I was still in this transient world. Now, by the steadfastness of my tongue, let my own striving for your intercession before Christ be established in your praise. Now, by the grace of Christ brought by you, in accordance with my strength, I praise you, adorned with the beauty of the Spirit. Rejoice, O blessed martyr, by the Spirit, for by the zeal of the witnesses and the hand of the servants of the holy apostles of Christ, you gained blessedness through faith and courage in confession. For the Father in heaven, through His only-begotten Son, crowned you and filled you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Son accepted you from the Father, and the Holy Spirit anointed you. The Holy Spirit embraced you, and together with the Father and the Son, through His unity, honored you and revealed you as a victor over suffering. Upon you the order of angels marveled, for like a living being you endured death for Christ. Upon you the chief fathers rejoice, for the blessed Abraham accepted you from among his own offspring into his bosom for Christ.

He who received his own kin and from among many of his relatives was chosen as father: you became the offspring of those martyrs of Christ and the disciple of the apostles: you were inscribed by name in that heavenly register of the eternal city among those martyrs, and you became a crown-bearer together with the martyrs: you were numbered among those confessors and are glorified with the righteous: I am greatly amazed at you, O holy martyr. For at this time of the reign of the Ishmaelites, you chose humility for Christ’s sake of your own will, and you cast aside that law which was held by the sword and confessed the true one, and you bowed down in worship to that which is worthy of worship as Lord and God: From whom or from where did you learn such knowledge of Christ? What wonder raised you to the glory of the evangelical life: You truly resembled that prudent thief. For you also had one of those held captive with you. A child of the Christians, who had been turned away from Christ and was persecuted by the law of the wicked: but he was judged with you for the sake of Christ’s confession. However, that wretched one even stumbled and fell in the struggle. For out of fear of death he embraced this world and lost that blessed one: the evil enemy seized him, and that sheep of Christ was devoured.

Many turned away from that good shepherd and cast aside that vessel of Christ’s power from their own hands; for this reason they were deprived and expelled from the flock of the first-speaking sheep. But you, blessed martyr, with that staff, with your own cross, preserved yourself like that strong faith of yours toward him. You were equal to that thief in faith and were established in paradise. You opened that gate of paradise with the cross of Christ, and those fiery cherubim could not judge you, for they knew not who you were. And why should I say much? For Ophrael grieved for his own; Abraham shed his own blood for the guilty, the innocent. But you redeemed the debts, for you too shed your own blood for the sake of that love. For this reason, with a strong crown he adorned you and made you a dweller in his own kingdom. Because of you, holy martyr, that love of Christ for us and our faith toward him were renewed as a miracle. For we were mixed with a foreign people, a people who had fallen away from Christ by law, a people fond of this world, a seed of the ungodly son of God, revilers of our faith, from whom we learned their deeds and served the confession of our hearts by imitating them.

Like those who have fallen away from Christ and become forgetful of the life of the sanctuary, but now through you Christ has been announced to us, and we have made his fear and his love our own, and we have been deemed worthy of his grace and his love and mercy, day by day, through the manifestation of many miracles and signs among us. You, among those your venerable confessors, with the sword and with the fire of the unquenchable flame, were made radiant. They could not make that word of the flesh their own. For let it be that everyone who has persecuted you thinks that he has offered a sacrifice to God. O the venerability and the unquenchable venerability of theirs! For that one who formerly knew not who you were, nor from what lineage, nor from what people, nor by what law you were saved, now willingly has presented you for recognition, as a confessor of Christ and a martyr, and all have learned of you. All creatures honor you, for the sky is a witness to your truth through the descent of fire upon that place, where, like a lamb without blemish, you were offered as a sacrifice by the consuming fire. You, the Qveqana, as a pure sacrifice, were pleasingly accepted by God, through the deposition of your precious body there.

Like those who have fallen away from Christ and become forgetful of the life of the sanctuary, but now through you Christ has been announced to us, and we have made his fear and his love our own, and we have been deemed worthy. For you have become like that altar of Abel, of Enoch, of Abraham, and of Elijah, who round about the beginnings of their flocks offered sacrifices to God; and the place of your sacrifice has been likened to the vestment of Aaron and of Zacharias the priest. For upon that blood-sprinkled, fiery place there ascended, like the radiance of the sacrificers, those your fleshly forms before the fleece, into that holy of holies, the heavenly altar. You were received by those rivers, like a martyr of Christ. And Christ God illuminated their darkness with the light of heaven. You were washed and cast out by your own kindred, but Christ among the Ishmaelites, like a rose among thorns, plucked you out and gathered you to his own Church. You, this wild olive fruit, Christ took and planted you in his own dwelling as fruit of the altar, and with the fruit of your faith gladdened the Church, within which the faithful of Christ rejoice and long for your glory, your asceticism, your courage, your martyrdom, your crown. How shall I praise you, victor over the wrestler, holy martyr? For you, this new believer of Christ, have become a teacher to us.

worthy of the grace of the Lord. Those shaken by the Lord, strengthen. Those strengthened, make joyful. The pagans, make them eager to be slaves of Christ. The memorial of your martyrdom you left us for the proclamation of your name. We have all become preachers. Now we entreat your love for Christ. You are an intercessor before the Saviour for all. Those who through you seek mercy from Christ the God, whose are glory and honour and power together with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.