James the Hermit

Venerable James the Hermit (James the Anchorite) was a Syrian ascetic of the fourth and fifth centuries, a hermit near Cyrrhus, disciple of Zebinas and Saint Maron, whom Theodoret of Cyrrhus knew personally. He lived in the open air, without a roof, and died after the year 456. He is commemorated in our calendar on 26 November, 21 February and 4 March, and the Serbian Church commemorates him on 9 December by the old calendar.

Life

Theodoret writes of him in chapter 21 of the History of the Lovers of God. James was a disciple of Zebinas, who clothed him in sackcloth, and of Maron. At first he struggled in a small cell, then withdrew to a hill thirty stadia east of Cyrrhus. Theodoret considers that thus he surpassed Maron, who lived under a roof, while James lived under the open sky. He endured all changes of weather. During a grave stomach illness, when Theodoret nursed him, he found heavy iron chains on his body. He ate only lentils soaked in water, in the evening. His patience was amazing: often in winter he spent three days and three nights lying face down, praying, and the snow covered him so completely that not a scrap of clothing was visible, and his neighbours dug him out with spades.

In another illness he was dying, and many gathered from all sides to take possession of his body. But the people of the nearby town, soldiers and simple men, armed as they could, came to the dying man, brandished weapons and drove off the strangers, not to kill but to frighten them. They put the body on a bed and carried it into the town. On the way James lay senseless, even as some villagers pulled out his hair as a keepsake. He was left in the monastery by the church of the Holy Prophets. Theodoret hurried from Beroea, where he was, and conveyed the greeting of the great Acacius. James suddenly opened his eyes and asked how Acacius was and when Theodoret had last seen him, then closed them again, and three days later recovered.

Miracles and remembrance

Theodoret describes his miracles: water blessed by him became healing, by prayer he freed the sick from fevers, cast out demons and raised a child. Theodoret turned more than once to his prayer in the struggle with the Marcionites. When he wrote the History, in 444 or 445, James had lived in the open air, in fasting and prayer, for thirty-⁠eight years. People built a large tomb in the neighbouring village, and Theodoret prepared a vault for him in the church of the Holy Apostles. Learning of it, James asked to be buried on the very mountain where he had struggled. Theodoret fulfilled his wish, ordering a stone coffin cut and taken up the mountain. James said that he did not want the tomb called his, but the house of the victorious martyrs, and that he, as a stranger admitted to their company, would rest in another vault. He gathered, wherever he could, particles of the relics of many prophets, apostles and martyrs and laid them in one tomb.

He was much respected in theological matters. In 434 Emperor Theodosius wrote to Simeon the Stylite, Baradatus and James, asking them to persuade Bishop Theodoret to be reconciled with the agreement between John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria. In 457 Emperor Leo I asked the bishops of the East to support the decisions of Chalcedon, and in the list of those who rejected the recognition of Timothy Aelurus is the name of James. The devil tempted him much: for ten days he did not let him eat, another time he suffered long from thirst. He had divine visions and died in peace. On Mount Kafr Rahima a monastery was built in his honour.