Agathon

Venerable Agathon was one of the learned and tested ascetics of the desert, whose wise sayings are preserved in the Gerontikon. He reposed in peace, and is commemorated on 8 January (new style).

The Gerontikon relates that some, hearing that he had great discernment, wished to test whether he would grow angry. They said to him: "Are you Agathon? We hear that you are a fornicator and proud." He answered: "It is so." They called him a babbler and a slanderer, and he answered the same. When they called him a heretic, he said: "I am not a heretic." Asked why he had accepted the other insults but not this one, the elder said that he accepted the others because they benefit his soul, but heresy is separation from God. Those who heard marvelled at his discernment and went away profited.

The Gerontikon also recalls that a father once called the still young monk Agathon abba, and someone else asked whether he had made him an abba. The father replied that he had not made him one; his manner of life had. A verse of the synaxarion says that Agathon rejoiced in heart, thinking of his peaceful end.