David of Mytilene

Venerable David of Mytilene is commemorated on 1 February (new style) together with his brothers, Saint Symeon the New Stylite and Saint George, archbishop of Mytilene. Their parents, Hadrian and Konstanto, lived in the early eighth century at Mytilene and had seven children, of whom five became monks.

David, the firstborn, was born in 717 or 718. At sixteen, while tending his father's sheep in the middle of a great storm, he had a vision: Saint Anthony called him to monastic life and told him to go to Asia Minor, to Mount Ida, opposite Lesbos. David obeyed gladly and lived there thirty years, in a cave, eating wild herbs. By another vision he was sent to the bishop of Gargara, from whom he received ordination as deacon and then as priest. He returned to Mount Ida and, on the advice of an angel, built a church of Saints Kerykos and Julitta and a monastery, where many monks soon gathered.

Ten years later, after his father's death, his mother came to see him with the youngest of the children, Symeon, then eight. Symeon stayed with David, and the mother returned to Mytilene and died soon after. David reposed at sixty-⁠six, after foreseeing his end and urging Symeon to return to Mytilene. Symeon and George carried on the holy struggle and suffered in the time of iconoclasm.