- Aretas (martyr)
St. Aretas, leader of the
Christian community ofNajran in the early 6th century, was executed during thepersecution of Christians by theJew ish kingDhu Nuwas in 523. [cite book | title = The Saints go marching in : a one volume hagiography of Africans, or descendants of Africans, who have been canonized by the church, including three of the early popes | author = R. Fulton Holtzclaw | year = 1980 | publisher = Keeble Press | location = Shaker Heights, OH | id = OCLC|6081480 | pages = p.120 | quote = Najran, in Yemen, was the scene, in 523, of a massacre of Ethiopians and other Christians by Jews and Arabs. A leader among the victims was the chief of theBono Horith , St. Aretas (see: Elesbaan). ] [cite book | title = Saints of Africa | author = Vincent J. O'Malley, C.M. | publisher = Our Sunday Visitor Publishing | isbn = 087973373X | year = 2001 ]The sixteenth-century Cardinal
Cesare Baronio added St. Elesbaan tomartyrology despite being a Monophysite heretics. [cite book | title = Butler's Lives of the Saints: October | isbn= 0814623867 | year = 1996 | first = Alban |last=Butler | chapter=SS Aretas and the Martyrs of Najran, and St Elsebann (523) | pages = p.169 ]References
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