ARETA, Saint. - An Arab of Nağrān, whose name al-Hārit was altered to Hirut in the Ethiopian Synaxarium (G. Sapeto, 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, stirred up in 523 a fierce persecution against the Christians 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 massacred whoever did not apostatize. A., who was of the tribe of Ka'b and the foremost of the magnates of Nağrān, after exhorting his fellow citizens to remain firm in the faith, suffered martyrdom with many others.
Dū Nuwās wrote to al-Mundir setting out the facts for him and urging him to imitate him. At the reading of this letter there were present in the camp of al-Mundir, then at war, Simeon, bishop of Bēt Aršām, and Sergius or, according to other codices, George, bishop of Ruṣāfah, who also drew further information from eyewitnesses. Simeon wrote a letter and Sergius, or George, the Martyrium Arethae. Both describe the persecution with the martyrdom of A. and his companions.
Of Simeon's letter the Syriac original with Italian translation was published in full by I. Guidi according to the London ms., 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. Nöldeke (Geschichte der Perser und Araber, Leiden 1878, p. 185 ff.) and the Bollandists (Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, p. 718 ff.) admit its authenticity, and C. A. Nallino (Raccolta di scritti editi ed ined., III, Rome 1941, p. 95) admits the historicity of the facts, while J. Halévy (Persécution des Chrétiens de Wędran, in Rev. des études juives, 18 [1889], pp. 16-42 and 161-78), followed by certain others who wholly or in part accept his opinions, does not admit it. J. H. Mordtmann, Die himjarischäthiopischen Kriege noch einmal, in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., 35 [1881], pp. 698 ff., 718 ff., gives credence to it only as regards 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, p. 721 ff. Cf. also A. Moberg, The book of the Himyarites, Lund 1924; Metaphrastes (PG 115, 1249-90) wrote the life of A. (see also Surius, De probatis Sanctorum vitis, 24 Oct.), whose name was then inserted in all the Eastern martyrologies, while in the West there is only the Fragmentum interpretationis latinae actorum s. A. (Acta SS., ibid., p. 761) made by Athanasius the Younger, bishop of Naples, in the marble calendar (9th century). In this city, on 24 Oct., St. A. and his companions are celebrated.