Abraham of Cratea

Abraham was a monk of Emesa in Byzantine Syria, bishop of Cratia and, toward the end, a hermit in Palestine. He was born in 474 and departed to the Lord around 558. He is venerated as a saint and commemorated on 6 December. Among the bishops of the see of Cratia, from its foundation in the second century to its dissolution in the twelfth, he is the most important.

He was born at Emesa, now Homs, and there he became a monk. When he was about eighteen the community there was scattered by raids of nomads. Abraham fled to Constantinople, where he became procurator of a monastery. At only twenty-⁠six he was made abbot of the monastery of Cratia in Bithynia. After some ten years he left secretly for Palestine, seeking a quieter life. He was then made to return to his monastery, where, soon after, he was also made bishop of Cratia. He served thirteen years, then retired, around 525, and went again to Palestine, where he remained to the end of his life, living in contemplation and becoming a hermit. He lived in a monastery at the Tower of Eudokia. He died on 6 December, which later became his feast day.