John the Prophet

Venerable John the Prophet was a hermit at the monastery of Abba Seridus, near Gaza in Palestine, a disciple of Saint Barsanuphius the Great and a teacher of Saint Dorotheus of Gaza, in the time of the emperor Justinian I (483 to 565). He is honoured as a saint by the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches. The Orthodox Church remembers him on 6 February on the old calendar, and our calendar gives also the day of 11 April.

Life

Of the beginnings of his life little is known, but it is known that he was not ordained. A scholar, Jennifer Hevelone-⁠Harper, identifies him as John of Beersheba, the monk with whom Barsanuphius exchanged letters, but this remains disputed. It is known that between 525 and 527 he came to the monastery of Seridus, at the invitation of Barsanuphius, who gave up his own cell to make room for John.

According to tradition, he lived in the cell in which his teacher, Barsanuphius, had lived, eighteen years in silence, labours and virtue, and was like him in everything. It is said, in the Christian view, that he received the gifts of prophecy and discernment, for which he was called "the prophet". While the abbot Seridus was scribe and letter carrier of Barsanuphius, Dorotheus of Gaza, later a renowned writer, served for eight years as letter carrier of John.

Death and letters

According to the tradition of the Church, he knew the day of his death. He foretold that it would come right after the death of Abba Seridus, but the young abbot of the same monastery, named Elianus, begged him to live at least two weeks more and to teach him how to run the monastery, and John postponed his death.

The exchange of letters of John with Barsanuphius has been preserved. In the eighteenth century, through the labour of the Moldavian elder, the schema-⁠archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, two of the fullest and oldest Greek parchment manuscripts of the Answers of Barsanuphius to John were found on Athos. During the elder Paisius's lifetime they were translated into Moldavian and Slavonic. An edition of these manuscripts, as well as a translation into Russian, was made in the nineteenth century by the elders of Optina Monastery. The instructions of Barsanuphius to John show the degree of their moral perfection and love for people, and contain few details of their lives.

The troparion of Saints Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet, in tone four, asks that the God of our fathers, who always deals with us according to His meekness, not withdraw His mercy from us, but through their prayers direct our life in peace.