Ignatios the Sinaite

Venerable Ignatios the Sinaite was born in the city of Rethymno in Crete and struggled as a monk on Mount Sinai. He is remembered on 29 January as a locally venerated saint, with no known date of canonization. The sources we have do not say in which age he lived.

He kept the monastic rules strictly: virginity, obedience and owning nothing, and he reached a high spiritual perfection. He was a guide to many ascetics. The best known episode of his life concerns his disciple Nikandros. After Nikandros died, his body was taken from the grave and found incorrupt and flowing with myrrh. Ignatios embraced and kissed it and thanked God for showing that the struggle of his spiritual son had been accepted. Forty days later he too passed to the Lord in peace.

Rethymno counts him among its saints, and the Metropolis of Rethymno lists him among the saints of the diocese.