Daniel of Egypt

Saint Daniel of Egypt, venerable, lived as an ascetic in the Egyptian desert in the sixth century and is commemorated on 18 March. He is known as the spiritual guide of Saint Anastasia the Patrician, and tradition identifies him with Abba Daniel, abbot of Scetis, under whose name several spiritual tales of the Egyptian desert have come down to us.

The Prologues say that, at the devil's instigation, he was falsely accused of fornication. He bore the shame without complaint, taking comfort in the Lord's words: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake" (Matthew 5:11).

Saint Anastasia (10 March) had been a lady of the court of Empress Theodora and had withdrawn to the neighbourhood of Alexandria, where she founded a monastery. After the empress died and Emperor Justinian sought her again, she fled to the desert of Scetis and asked Abba Daniel for help. The elder clothed her in a monk's habit, called her the eunuch Anastasius and settled her in a cave far from Scetis. He visited her every week and saw to it that one of his disciples brought her water. Anastasia lived there, hidden from the world, for twenty-⁠eight years.

When she felt her end approaching, she left the elder a few words written on a potsherd. Daniel came with his disciple, heard her confession, gave her Holy Communion and buried her, and only after her death did he reveal to the disciple who she had been. It is from this account of his that the life of Saint Anastasia has been preserved.

The year of Saint Daniel's repose is not known. His memory remained in the Prologues on 18 March, though it was not entered in the present calendar of the Russian Church.