ARETHAS, Saint. — An Arab from Nağrān, whose name al-Ḥāriṯ was altered in the Ethiopian Synaxarium to Hirut (G. Sapceto, Viaggio e missione cattolica fra i Mensā, i Bogos ecc., Roma 1857, p. 414). Dū Nuwās, king of the Ḥimyarites, who, according to Arab, Syriac and Abyssinian traditions and documents, had converted to Judaism, unleashed in 523 a fierce persecution against the Christians after another that had ended in 519. To take Nağrān, he promised the Christian inhabitants that he would spare them. But once he entered the city in 523, he massacred those who did not apostatize. A., who was of the tribe of Ka'b and the foremost of the nobles of Nağrān, after exhorting his fellow citizens to remain steadfast in the faith, suffered martyrdom with many others.
Dū Nuwās wrote to al-Mundir, recounting the events and urging him to imitate him. Present at the reading of this letter in al-Mundir’s camp during wartime were Simeon, bishop of Bēt Aršām, and Sergius—or, according to other manuscripts, George, bishop of Rušafah, who also gathered further information from eyewitnesses. Simeon wrote a letter and Sergius, or George, 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 from the London ms. add. 14,650 in the Atti dell’Accademia dei Lincei, 3rd ser., 8 (1881), and republished by the Istituto per l’Oriente (I. Guidi, Raccolta di scritti, I, Roma 1944). I. Guidi and Th. Nöldeke (Geschichte der Perser und Araber, Leiden 1878, pp. 185 ff.) and the Bollandists (Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, pp. 718 ff.) acknowledge its authenticity, while C. A. Nallino (Raccolta di scritti editi ed ined., III, Roma 1941, p. 95) upholds the historicity of the events; J. Halévy (Persécution des Chrétiens de Nedjran, in Rev. des études juives, 18 [1889], pp. 16–42 and 161–78), followed by some others who accept his views in whole or in part, does not. J. H. Mordtmann, Die himjarisch-äthiopischen Kriege noch einmal, in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellschaft, 35 (1881), pp. 698 ff., 718 ff., grants credence to it only insofar as the chronology is concerned. The *Mart. Arethae* was written in Syriac (I. Guidi, Raccolta di scritti, I, Roma 1915, p. 2, and Atti, ibid., p. 472, n. 2) and translated into Greek and Armenian. The Greek text was published by J. F. Boissonade in Anecdota Graeca (V, 1 ff.) and republished in Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, pp. 721 ff. Cf. also A. Moberg, The book of the Ḥimyarites, Lund 1924. Metaphrastes (PG 115, 1249–90) wrote the life of A. (cf. also Surius, De probatis Sanctorum vitis, 24 Oct.). His name was then inserted into all the Eastern martyrologies, while in the West only the *Fragmentum interpretationis latinae actorum s. A.* (Acta SS., ibid., p. 761) survives, translated by Athanasius the Younger, bishop of Naples, in the marble calendar (9th cent.). In this city, on 24 Oct., SS. Arethas and his companions are celebrated.
BIBL.:
I. Guidi, Raccolta di scritti, I, Roma 1915, 1944;
Th. Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber, Leiden 1878;
Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869;
C. A. Nallino, Raccolta di scritti editi ed ined., III, Roma 1941;
J. Halévy, Persécution des Chrétiens de Nedjran, in Rev. des études juives, 18 (1889);
J. H. Mordtmann, Die himjarisch-äthiopischen Kriege noch einmal, in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellschaft, 35 (1881);
A. Moberg, The book of the Ḥimyarites, Lund 1924;
PG 115, 1249–90.