Sabas 4 was a monk and hegoumenos of the monastery of Stoudios; in 787 he attended the Second Council of Nikaia (the Seventh Ecumenical Council) and is attested at the first (24 September 787), second (26 September 787), third (28 September 787), fourth (1 October 787) and fifth (4 October 787) sessions: Mansi XII 1016-XIII 486. He is styled Σάββας ὁ εὐλαβέστατος ἡγούμενος μονῆς τῶν Στουδίων, Mansi XII 1015, XIII 181; Σάββας ὁ εὐλαβέστατος μοναχὸς καὶ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίων, XII 1019, XII 1022, XII 1031, XII 1039 and cf. XIII 41 (Σάββας ὁ εὐλαβέστατος μοναχὸς), XII 1030 (Σάββας ὁ εὐλαβέστατος), XII 1034 (ἡγούμενος μονῆς τῶν Στουδίου), XII 1111, XII 1118, XIII 200 (ἡγούμενος Στουδίου); and Σάββας ἀρχιμανδρίτης καὶ ἡγούμενος μονῆς τῶν Στουδίων, Mansi XIII 152, cf. XIII 185 (Σάββας ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίων). At the first session he spoke in favour of the readmission to the Church of the bishop of Amorion, Theodosios 14, a former iconoclast, following a statement by Theodosios 14 rejecting iconoclasm and accepting the veneration of icons: Mansi XII 1015. He also expressed pleasure at the repentance of Hypatios 1 and other former iconoclasts: Mansi XII 1019. He and the monks with him agreed with the general principle that the Church welcomed back penitents, but thought that they should not be admitted to the priesthood: Mansi XII 1022, XII 1030. He then asked the Council to examine whether repentant heretics received back by the Church in the past had been ordained by heretics or not: Mansi XII 1034.

He also spoke on other occasions: Mansi XII 1031, XII 1039. He was apparently leader and spokesman of the monks at the Council; he is always named at the head of the list of monks and hegoumenoi. At the second session he spoke in support of the traditional veneration of icons as described in statements from pope Hadrian I (Hadrianos 1) and condemned iconoclasts: Mansi XII 1111. At the third session, during the debate about Gregorios of Neokaisareia (Gregorios 38), he noted that Gregorios 38 was considered one of the leaders of the heresy and should therefore be readmitted only to the Church, not to his see; he also praised the emperors for calling the Council: Mansi XII 1118. At the fourth session he asked why a passage from the Canons of the Sixth Ecumenical Council had been read from sheets and not from a codex: Mansi XIII 41 (Tarasios 1 told him that this was the original document). Later he subscribed the statements read out from the Fathers in support of the veneration of icons: Mansi XIII 152. At the fifth session, on 4 October, he rejoiced at the defeat of the iconoclasts and their Council and the heretics who agreed with them: Mansi XIII 181. He described the iconoclasts as people whose souls were blind: Mansi XIII 185. Towards the end of the fifth session he proposed that the icons be restored to their places and that Christians celebrate worship with them, a proposal accepted by the Council: Mansi XIII 200.

He is mentioned in a letter of Theodore the Stoudite (Theodoros 15), written in 809; at Nikaia in 787 he and Theoktistos 4 had at first opposed the restoration to their sees of iconoclast bishops, including even those who had repented; subsequently, false statements had been made about him and Theoktistos 4 by Antonios 36 (περὶ Σάβα τε καὶ Θεοκτίστου, τῶν εὐλαβεστάτων μοναχῶν: p. 109, lines 34-35): Theod. Stud., Ep. 38, pp. 108-111. In 797 he was at Paula where he and Theoktiste 3 (sister of Platon 1) met Theodoros 15 who was then on his way into exile at Thessalonike; their meeting was clandestine and they spent the night in conversation before having to part: Theod. Stud., Ep. 3, pp. 11-16 (σὺν τῷ κυρῷ Σάβᾳ: p. 14, line 76). He was dead by 808: Theod. Stud., Ep. 28, pp. 75-80 (mentions τῷ μακαρίτῃ Σάβᾳ: p. 78, line 83). He is mentioned in three other letters of Theodoros 15: Theod. Stud., Epp. 50, pp. 145-151; 62, pp. 173-174; 87, pp. 207-209.

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