Barsanuphius the Great

Venerable Barsanuphius the Great was a hermit and spiritual father in Palestine in the sixth century, known also as the Great Old Man. He lived enclosed near Gaza and, together with Venerable John the Prophet, guided monks, priests, bishops and laypeople by letter. Their letters, more than eight hundred in number, deeply influenced Orthodox monasticism. He departed to the Lord after 543. He is commemorated on 6 February (19 February in the Gregorian calendar).

The hermit of Thavata Barsanuphius was born in Egypt, according to some sources in a large city, and was a learned man who spoke several languages. Early in the sixth century he came to the hill country near Gaza, to Thavata, close to the monastery of Abba Seridos, and made himself a small cell where he lived in silence, according to some sources for more than fifty years. He ate bread and water. He was already a tested ascetic and knew the tradition of the Desert Fathers. It is not known whether he was ordained a priest.

Monks who sought a word of profit gathered around him, and the nearby monastery came to take care of them. The abbot Seridos was the only one who spoke with him directly and acted as intermediary for those who wished to receive counsel. Since Seridos did not know Coptic, the answers were written down in Greek. When some began to doubt that the old man existed at all, Barsanuphius came out and washed their feet.

With John the Prophet Between 525 and 527 another hermit, John, came to the monastery and became Barsanuphius' disciple. Barsanuphius gave him his cell and moved to another nearby. Barsanuphius was called the Great Old Man, and John the Other Old Man or the Prophet. The two worked together, and it was said that they understood each other without speaking or writing. John was the teacher of Abba Dorotheus of Gaza, and Dorotheus stood to John as Seridos stood to Barsanuphius.

The saint answered questions of every kind, from small practicalities to the depths of theology. Of the nearly 850 letters that survive, about 400 are Barsanuphius'. They show a strong, warm and prayerful character, with a clear style. Tradition ascribes to him the gifts of foresight, of knowing the hearts of people and of working miracles. He answered each according to the soul and thought of the questioner, not the words of the question.

End and relics Between 543 and 544 Seridos and John died, within two weeks of each other, and Barsanuphius withdrew into complete seclusion. The date of his repose is not known: some place it around 563, others before 600, and the Greek sources between 540 and 545. Evagrius Scholasticus, writing in 593, says that he was still believed to be alive, and that when the patriarch of Jerusalem ordered the door of his cell opened, fire shot out and everyone fled.

In the year 850 a Palestinian monk brought the saint's relics to the town of Oria in southern Italy. Tradition says that since then he has protected the town several times; he is its patron in the Catholic Church, which keeps his feast on 11 April. In the East, Venerable Paisius Velichkovsky found two of the oldest manuscripts of the Answers on Athos and made them known through translation. Orthodox Christians still pray his prayer for the forgiveness of forgotten sins.