John the Ascetic

Venerable John the Ascetic (called in Georgian Ioane Dakudulebuli, "the hermit," † before 886) was abbot of the Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, born at Vania, in the theme of Bukellarion. He is venerated by the faithful as a saint, without any known canonization; the Church of Georgia commemorates him on 26 March.

His Life is preserved in a Georgian translation, in a single manuscript, the March Menologion of Gelati (Kutaisi), of the sixteenth century. In the title the author is named as the monk and keeper of the vessels Joseph, that is, it seems, Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer, who knew John personally and "stayed with him many years." Joseph the Hymnographer struggled in 837-839 at the Monastery of Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, of which John was later abbot.

He was born in the village of Vania, in the theme of Bukellarion (northern Asia Minor), into a peasant family; his parents were Theophylact and Basilia. After her husband's death Basilia went into the mountains and settled beside the church of the Holy Archangel Michael, and John became a shepherd. From childhood he had a leaning to the monastic life; "standing in the mountains with the flocks, he shed streams of tears, and with him even the plants and rocks wept." A neighbour's daughter tried to tempt him, but John resolved to withdraw into the mountains as a hermit. In time he became famous for his labours, wonders and help to those who came to him (for example, at his prayer fishermen caught ten large sturgeons). The hermit Sabbas foretold that he would receive monastic tonsure at Constantinople. Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (867-886) held him in great respect; by the emperor's will he remained at Constantinople and was appointed abbot of the monastery of the Holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. He had the gift of finding the relics of saints hidden under the ground: in the mountains he found the relics of the apostle Fortunatus, and in the monastery of Sergius and Bacchus he found the relics of Holy Martyr Sergius, buried by the iconoclasts. After many years the emperor appointed him abbot of the monastery of Holy Martyr Diomedes, where he died in deep old age.

The exact date of his death is not known, but since the author of the Life, Venerable Joseph, died in 886 (by the most widespread view), John died earlier. Still, considering that he was abbot of the monasteries of Sergius and Bacchus and of Diomedes for a long time (the first not earlier than 867), it may be thought that he lived to the 880s. Several scholars have tried to identify him with other saints of similar names, but these identifications remain hypotheses.