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Abu Dhabi (Agenzia Fides) - The Jubilee in honor of Saint Aretha and his Companions, Martyrs of Arabia, was also a precious opportunity to rediscover the long history of Christianity in Arabia, a history "rooted in the apostolic witness and saturated with the blood of the martyrs". A source from which the composite and vibrant community of millions of Catholics today scattered in the various countries of the Arabian Peninsula can also draw. This is what the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, bishop Paolo Martinelli (ofm.Cap.), emphasized with an eye to the present and the future, who celebrated the closing Mass of the Jubilee year yesterday, Sunday 23 September. More than 3,000 Catholics took part in the solemn Mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, during which the Holy Door was closed.
The Jubilee, which began on October 23, 2023 (see Fides, 20/10/2023 and 24/10/2023), was celebrated jointly by the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia (with the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman) and the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia (led by Bishop Aldo Berardi with Barhain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). The closing ceremony of the Jubilee in the Vicariate of Southern Arabia was brought forward because Bishop Martinelli will be in Rome in October for the assembly of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. In the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, a similar closing ceremony is planned for October 23.
“The communion that the Catholic communities of the Arabian Peninsula have experienced through the joint celebration of the Jubilee Year,” said Bishop Martinelli in his homily, is one of the reasons why these saints are so important to us as “we come from many different countries, have different liturgical rites and spiritual traditions. Each of us has devotions to saints from our own culture and we may wish to celebrate them here as well. But Saint Arethas and his companions are saints of this land of Arabia in which we now live. Therefore, they are our saints, whom we all can celebrate in common” as “one Church, the Church of Arabia.” In fact, “coming to this country in the Gulf as migrants – insisted the Apostolic Vicar – we become an indivisible part of the history of this Church of Arabia, rooted in the Apostolic testimony and watered by the blood of the martyrs”.
Saint Arethas and his Companions are venerated in all Catholic and Orthodox churches. Historical sources report that they were Arab Christians from the ancient Christian city of Najran in southern Arabia (in present-day Saudi Arabia) who were martyred in 523 AD. Arethas, whose Arabic name was Al-Harith bin Ka'b, was born in 427 AD and served as ruler of the predominantly Christian city until his martyrdom at the venerable age of ninety-five. In the 6th century, the king of Himyar (in modern-day Yemen), Dhu Nuwas, began a systematic persecution of Christians in southern Arabia, burning churches, forcing people to convert, and killing those who refused to renounce their Christian faith. Priests, deacons, nuns, and entire families—men, women, and children—were burned alive. According to tradition, the relics of Saint Arethas and his companions, the martyrs of Najran were kept in a magnificent cube-shaped shrine that became a popular pilgrimage site for Arab Christians in late antiquity. The shrine was destroyed in the 7th century when Christians were expelled from southern Arabia.
The relics of Saint Arethas eventually found their way to Mount Athos in Greece. Their return to the Arabian Peninsula after nearly fourteen centuries is therefore considered an extraordinary blessing for today's Christian communities in the Gulf. The Apostolic Penitentiary issued a decree authorizing the Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia, Bishop Aldo Berardi (O.S.S.T.), to impart the "Apostolic Blessing with Plenary Indulgence" by the Pope after the celebration of Holy Mass on an appropriate day of the Holy Year to "all the faithful present who are deeply contrite and moved by love."
At the end of the Jubilee, Bishop Martinelli also wrote the Pastoral Letter "Joy and Jubilee," which was published yesterday, Sunday, September 22. In the Letter, the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia reviews the Jubilee Year of Saint Aretha, describing the spiritual fruits it has brought to the Vicariate and invites prayer in the spirit of Pope Francis' call for the Holy Year 2025.
In the letter, Bishop Martinelli announces that the feast of Saint Aretha will be celebrated every year on October 24th from now on, to ask that the memory of the Arab martyrs continue to inspire and accompany the journey of Catholic communities. "They constitute a deep root of the tree in which we find ourselves today. We are called to inhabit with faith this land." After celebrating the holy martyrs of Arabia for a whole year, it is now "easier to recognize that "being Christians in the Gulf means belonging to this Church in the Gulf. We are not only faithful who come from different churches: here, we all together form the Catholic Church in Arabia," writes the bishop. Looking ahead to the upcoming Jubilee 2025, the Bishop invites everyone "to prepare well for the Holy Year 2025 by getting into the mode of prayer", and summarizes the gestures and practices that in the spiritual life of the people of God unite prayer, Sacraments, reading of the Word. In this summary, he refers to the Our Father, the Liturgy of the Hours, personal prayer, the Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration. "Prayer," underlines Bishop Martinelli, "is the request to keep alive the desire for God in daily life," says Bishop Martinell, referring to Saint Augustine.
As the Catholic community in the Gulf moves from one Jubilee to another, Archibishop Paolo's letter recalls with gratitude the gifts received and shared during the Jubilee of the Martyrs of Arabia, and at the same time suggests the path to follow in the future.
The Jubilee has brought together the entire Church of the Arabian Peninsula at its ancient source. "Individuals, families, groups, young people, associations and movements, children and the elderly: everyone came to celebrate the victory of these holy martyrs of Arabia through their pilgrimage to the Holy Door". During the Jubilee year, the various communities in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman had the opportunity to host the relics of Saint Arethas. Many stressed that they had come to know the holy martyrs of Arabia only thanks to the Jubilee. "Every day", recalled a woman cited by the Apostolic Vicariate in the testimonies collected and disseminated, "the priest told of the torments endured by Saint Arethas and his companions, and reported how their suffering was transformed into a beautiful crown for our Lord Jesus Christ. This touched me deeply, because I realized how easily we worry and lose ourselves over little things". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 23/9/2024)
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