ARETA, saint. – An Arab of Nağrān, whose name al-Hārit was altered to Hirut in the Ethiopian Synaxarion (G. Sapcto, Viaggio e missione cattolica fra i Mensa, i Bogos ecc., Rome 1857, p. 414). Dū Nuwās, king of the Himyarites, who, according to Arab, Syriac, and Abyssinian traditions and documents, converted to Judaism, instigated a ferocious persecution against the Christians in 523, after another that had ended in 519. In order to occupy Nağrān, he promised the Christian inhabitants that he would spare them. But, having entered the city in 523, he had those who would not apostatize massacred. A., who belonged to the tribe of Ka'b and was the foremost of the magnates of Nağrān, after exhorting his fellow citizens to remain steadfast in the faith, suffered martyrdom together with many others.
Dū Nuwās wrote to al-Mundir, informing him of the events and urging him to imitate him. When this letter was read, Simeon, bishop of Bēt Aršām, and Sergio—or, according to other codices, Giorgio—bishop of Ruṣāfah, were present in al-Mundir’s camp during the war; they also obtained further information from eyewitnesses. Simeon wrote a letter, and Sergio, or Giorgio, the Martyrium Arethae. Both describe the persecution and the martyrdom of A. and his companions.
The original Syriac of Simeon’s letter, with an Italian translation, was published in full by I. Guidi, according to the London manuscript add. 14, 650, in the Atti dell'Accademia dei Lincei, 3rd series, 8 (1881), and republished by the Istituto per l'Oriente (I. Guidi, Raccolta di scritti, I, Rome 1944); I. Guidi, Th. Näldeke (Geschichte der Perser und Araber, Leiden 1878, pp. 185 ff.) and the Bollandists (Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, pp. 718 ff.) accept its authenticity, and C. A. Nallino (Raccolta di scritti editi ed ined., III, Rome 1941, p. 95) the historicity of the events, whereas J. Halévy (Persécution des Chrétiens de Wędran, in Rev. des études juives, 18 [1889], pp. 16–42 and 161–78), followed by several others who accept his views in whole or in part, does not accept II. J. H. Mordtmann, Die himjarischäthiopischen Kriege noch einmal, in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., 35 [1881], pp. 698 ff., 718 ff., accepts it only with regard to the chronology. The Mart. Arethae was written in Syriac (I. Guidi, Raccolta di scritti, I, Rome 1915, p. 2, and Atti, ibid., p. 472, note 2) and translated into Greek and Armenian. The Greek text was published by J. F. Boissonade in Anecd. Graeca (V, 1 ff.) and republished in Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, pp. 721 ff. Cf. also A. Moberg, The book of the Himyarites, Lund 1924; Metaphrastes (PG 115, 1249–90) wrote the life of A. (v. also Surius, De probatis Sanctorum citis, 24 Oct), whose name was subsequently inserted in all the Eastern martyrologies, whereas in the West there is only the Fragmentum interpretationis latinae actorum s. A. (Acta SS., ibid., p. 761), made by Atanasio iuniore, bishop of Naples, in the marble calendar (9th century). In this city, on 24 October, St A. and his companions are celebrated.