The Holy Prophet Abbacum (Habakkuk).
The holy Prophet Abbacum, whose name means “loving embrace,” is eighth in order of the minor Prophets. His homeland and tribe are not recorded in the Divine Scriptures; according to some, he was of the tribe of Symeon. He prophesied in the years of Joachim, who is also called Jechonias, before the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people, which took place 599 years before Christ. When Nabuchodonosor came to take the Israelites captive, Abbacum fled to Ostrakine, and after Jerusalem was destroyed and the Chaldeans departed, Abbacum returned and cultivated his field. Once he made some pottage and was about to take it to the reapers in the field. An Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and carried him with the pottage to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the lions’ den, then brought him back to Judea (Bel and the Dragon, 33–39). His book of prophecy is divided into three chapters; the third chapter is also used as the Fourth Ode of the Psalter. His holy relics were found in Palestine during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Great, through a revelation to Zebennus, Bishop of Eleutheropolis (Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., Book VII, 29).
The above account is taken from the Great Horologion,
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