Conon of Pentucla

Venerable Conon of Pentucla was born in Cilicia and lived as a monk from his youth at the monastery of Pentucla on the Jordan, of which he became abbot. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 555. He is commemorated on 19 February.

Received into the monastery as a young man, he was ordained a priest and was known for his strict asceticism. Peter, Patriarch of Jerusalem, sent to him the people who wished to be baptized in the Jordan. Saint Conon baptized them and anointed them with holy chrism, but he avoided baptizing women.

According to tradition, one day Saint John the Forerunner appeared to him and promised to help him with his prayers in the struggle against temptations. The saint spent twenty years in the monastery and died in 555.

In the West he is also remembered as Conon the Baptist or Conon of the Jordan.