Saint John of Egypt, (c.305"St. John of Egypt", Faith ND
/ref> - 394), also known as John the Hermit, John the Anchorite, or John of Lycopolis, was one of the

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

s of the Nitrian Desert. He began as a carpenter but at the age of twenty-five began to live a life of solitude.

Early life

John of Egypt was born in Lycopolis.Holtzclaw, R. Fulton. (1980). ''The Saints Go Marching in: A One Volume Hagiography of Africans, Or Descendants of Africans, who Have Been Canonized by the Church, Including Three of the Early Popes''. Keeble Press. p. 80 His parents were poor and he trained as a carpenter. At the age of 25, he became a monk under the guidance of an elderly hermit. He spent a decade with the hermit, taking direction from him and learning from him.

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman ( la, Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, ''Ioannus Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern c ...

recounts a tale that the hermit directed John to water a dry stick every day for a year. After this test of obedience his superior threw the stick away.Harmless, William. ''Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism'', Oxford University Press, USA, 2004
, p. 222 When the hermit died, John spent the next five years travelling and visiting monasteries.

Life as a hermit

According to

hagiographer A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...

Alban Butler Alban Butler (13 October 171015 May 1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer. Biography Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. His father died when ...

, John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. Finally, he withdrew to the top of a cliff near Lycopolis, Egypt, where he could avoid all human contact. There he carved three small cells out of rock; one for sleeping, one for work and the last for praying. Then he walled them up with himself inside, leaving only a small window. He communicated through the window to people who brought him food and water twice a week. Crowds would gather on those two days to hear him preach. John never ate until sunset and lived on a diet of

dried fruit Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to th ...

and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s for fifty years.Bangley, Bernard. (2005). ''Butler's Lives of the Saints: Concise, Modernized Edition''. Paraclete Press. p. 67. He refused bread and never ate anything cooked. He lived this way well into his nineties. He was believed to possess the

spiritual gift A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα ''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the ...

prophecy In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a '' prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or pr ...

and often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. He predicted future victories to the Emperor

Theodosius the Great Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

. He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life.

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

wrote that John was tempted by

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

s and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman, according to Augustine, of blindness and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person. According to Butler, John prayed incessantly, and he spent the last three days of his life without food or drink or any interactions but prayer. He was discovered in his cell, with his body in a position of prayer. His feast day is March 27 in the Western churches and June 12 in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Early life

Life as a hermit

References

Further reading