David of Thessalonica

Saint David of Thessalonica, called the Dendrite, "the tree-⁠dweller", was a monk of Thessalonica, known for his wise counsel, who lived for years in an almond tree. He fell asleep around 540. The Church remembers him on 26 June.

The earliest report of him comes from John Moschos, in the Spiritual Meadow, who tells on the word of Palladius of Thessalonica that David and Adolas came from Mesopotamia and led an ascetic life near Thessalonica, full of miracles. His Life, written by an unknown author of Thessalonica between 715 and 720, shows that he was probably born in Mesopotamia around 450 and died at Thessalonica between 535 and 541. As a young man, between 465 and 470, he became a monk at the monastery of Saints Theodore and Mercurius, beside one of the city's gates, called Koukouliaton because the monks wore cloaks with hoods. There he gave himself to prayer, fasting, vigil, humility and the study of Scripture. After the abbot's death the monks chose him in his place, but he refused and climbed an almond tree beside the monastery's main church and lived in it three years, enduring all the hardships of the weather in the swaying tree. So he was called the Dendrite.

After three years an angel commanded him to live in silence in a cell and foretold that he would perform "one more act of love". David came down from the tree and entered the prepared cell in the presence of Archbishop Dorotheus I of Thessalonica and many clergy and faithful. John Moschos says the cell was about three stades outside the city wall, that is very near the monastery. Many began to come to him to seek healing through his prayers, and stories were told of deliverance from spirits and healing of diseases. He was known for good advice, and crowds besieged him for words of profit and prayer. He went to Constantinople to ask Emperor Justinian to send soldiers to defend Thessalonica from an attack. It is told, after Saint Dimitry of Rostov, that once he took in his hands a burning coal, laid incense on it and censed the emperor without his hands being harmed, and the emperor bowed to his feet. He died around 540, on ship, on the way to Macedonia. His relics are kept in Thessalonica in the monastery of Saint Theodora, and the katholikon of the Latomou monastery is dedicated to him.