The Catholic Church in the Arabian Peninsula is preparing to celebrate, from October 24, the Jubilee for the 1,500 years of the martyrdom of Saint Aretas and his more than 100 companions, under the power of the Jewish king Yusuf Dhu Nuwas.
In statements collected by the Vatican agency Fides, Bishop Aldo Berardi, Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia, highlighted that “this year we consider it a year of grace for the entire vicariate and for all the Christian communities present in the Arabian Gulf.”
“We celebrate in faith the memory of our Christian ancestors who gave their lives for Christ, remaining faithful to the end,” he noted.
The celebration will be experienced both in the Apostolic Vicariate of North Arabia, which includes Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; as in the Apostolic Vicariate of South Arabia, which covers the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman.
Saint Aretas and his companions are venerated in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. They were Christians who lived in the city of Najrán and who suffered persecution for hatred of the faith and martyrdom in the year 523 AD
In the 6th century, Yusuf Dhu Nuwas, king of the kingdom of Himya, which once encompassed modern-day Yemen, a western part of Oman, and southern territories of Saudi Arabia, converted to Judaism and led a brutal persecution of Christians in the region, forcing them to convert under threat of death. It is estimated that he martyred more than 4,000, burning many of them alive, including women and children. Saint Aretas was beheaded along with his companions.
According to Fides, Pope Francis granted a plenary indulgence for the Jubilee of the Arab martyrs, which will last until October 23, 2024. It can be obtained by those who make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Awali (Bahrain), to the Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) or to the parish of Saint Aretas.
Bishop Berardi assured that “our life is a pilgrimage,” and highlighted that “our pilgrimage is often not easy because of the difficulties of life, the environment and the societies in which we live.”
“But it is always possible to follow Jesus and the Gospel, when we express our love to the Father, and when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. If this happens, our pilgrimage becomes a blessing. And the Jubilee offers us the opportunity to better understand our vocation as a Catholic Church in this region,” he stated.
A long-awaited return: Relic of Saint Aretas returns to the Arabian Peninsula
One of the most anticipated moments of the Jubilee of the Arab Martyrs is the arrival of a relic of Saint Aretas to Bahrain in November 2023, a gift from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.
Tradition has it that the relics of Saint Aretas and his fellow martyrs were kept in a cubic-shaped sanctuary that, in ancient times, stood as an important pilgrimage center for Arab Christians. However, in the 7th century, this sanctuary was devastated and the Christians were expelled from southern Arabia. Many of the relics kept in the sanctuary found refuge in various monasteries and churches in Syria and Iraq.
The relic of Saint Aretas, over time, was protected and venerated in the region of Mount Athos, in Greece.