Jacob the Syrian

Venerable Jacob the Syrian was a hermit in Syria in the fourth or fifth century. He is commemorated on 27 February, on the same day as Venerable Asclepius.

The reports of his life are given by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in the twenty-⁠fifth chapter of his book History of the Friends of God, but they are very few. Jacob was a follower and imitator of the life of Asclepius. He chose the life of an anchorite and began to live in a cell near a village called Nimouza. There he lived in seclusion to the end.

With the people who came to him he spoke through a small opening, bored in the wall at a slant, for which reason no one saw him. Jacob never used fire or a lamp. Only twice, for Theodoret, whom he loved and respected, did he open the door and let him in. He lived more than ninety years.