St. Arethas and Companions were Arab Christians from the ancient city of Najran in south Arabia (in present-day Saudi Arabia) who were martyred in the year +523 AD for their steadfast faith in the Crucified Christ.Arethas was born Al-Harith bin Ka’b in 427 AD. He ruled as governor or sayyid of the Christian city of Najran until his martyrdom at the ripe age of 95 years.

It was believed that in the sixth century, the king of Himyar (in present-day Yemen), Dhu Nuwas, undertook a systematic persecution of Christians in south Arabia, burning churches, forcing people to convert, and putting to death those who refused to deny their Christian faith.

After taking Najran, Dhu Nuwas ordered that priests, deacons, nuns and laymen be thrown into a trench that was set on fire (which later became famously known in the Arabic tradition as al-ukhdud). Men, women, and children were subsequently slain, including a boy of five who jumped into the flames to be with his mother. St. Arethas, along with a hundred of his followers, was beheaded. Those who had been martyred were believed to range from 340 to more than 4,000 Christians.

Before being put to death, St. Arethas made an impassioned exhortation, proclaiming that “to die for Christ is to find life.” He then went on to prophesy that “as a vine pruned at the correct time gives a good yield of fruit, God will multiply the Christian population … the church which has been burned down will be raised up.”

The Catholic Church, dating from Byzantine times, has venerated St. Arethas and Companions as martyred saints, their feast day falling every October 24th. Their martyrdom was quickly commemorated in the liturgies of many churches and monasteries. Though bitter theological disputes on the nature of Christ were dividing Christians in the Byzantine empire and beyond, veneration of the martyrs quickly became common across the known Christian world, irrespective of one’s Christological belief or confession. The Roman Martyrology records the “the passion in Najran in Arabia of St. Arethas, the leader of the city, and 340 companions under Dhu Nuwas, the King of Himyar, in the time of Emperor Justin”.

Today there exists a local parish in our vicariate, which covers the very city of the martyrdom of St. Arethas and his Companions. It was fittingly consecrated under their protection and erected in their honor in 2011 by the late Bishop Camillo Ballin.