Diocletus

Venerable Diocletus, also called Diocles, was a hermit in the Thebaid of Egypt in the fourth century. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 19 July.

In his youth he received a thorough education in grammar and philosophy. At twenty-⁠eight he went into the desert to live in solitude. There he struggled for more than thirty-⁠five years.

The author of the Lausiac History, Palladius, visited him in the desert and spoke with him. The venerable one used to say that if the human mind departs even a little from a good thought, it cannot be known whether it will be saved or lost. Palladius asked how it is possible for the human mind to remain constantly in divine thoughts, and the venerable one answered that a man lives as he has become accustomed, whether with good thoughts or with evil.

No other news of his life has been preserved in the sources at hand.