John the Silent

The Venerable John the Silent (John the Hesychast, John the Sabaite) was a bishop and then a hermit, known for living seventy-⁠six years in solitude and silence. He was given the name the Silent for his love of stillness and recollection. His feast is on 3 December in the Orthodox Church and on 13 May in the Catholic Church.

He was born in 454 at Nicopolis in Armenia (modern Koyulhisar, in Turkey), into a family of generals and governors, the son of Encratius and Euthymia. His parents died when he was eighteen; he then gave part of the property to the poor and with another part built churches and a monastery, in which he stayed with ten young monks, leading a life of hard work and prayer. For his life, the bishop of Sebaste consecrated him bishop of Colonia in Armenia, at twenty-⁠eight, against his wish; he held this office nine years. About 490 he went to Constantinople to ask the emperor to quell a local persecution; afterward he did not return to Colonia but, wishing to return to solitude, went to Jerusalem. His biographer says that one night, while he was praying, he saw a bright cross and heard a voice: If you desire to be saved, follow this light. The light led him to the monastery of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified. At thirty-⁠eight he entered the monastery, which held a hundred and fifty monks. About 494 Sabbas gave him a cell for uninterrupted stillness. Five days a week he fasted and left his cell only on Saturday and Sunday, for the Liturgy. After three years he was made steward of the monastery.

John had never told anyone he had been a bishop, and after four years Sabbas thought him worthy of the priesthood and presented him to Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem. Arriving at Golgotha, John asked to speak in private: Holy Father, I have something to tell you in secret; after that, if you judge me worthy, I will receive holy orders. He confessed: Father, I was consecrated bishop, but because of my many sins I fled and came into this desert to await the visit of the Lord. The patriarch was astonished and told Sabbas he wished to be excused from ordaining this man. Sabbas feared that John had committed some crime, but after prayer God revealed the truth to him. John wished to leave, but Sabbas stopped him, promising to keep the secret. John stayed in his cell four years, speaking to no one except the one who brought him necessities. In 503 certain restless disciples forced Sabbas to leave the monastery, and John moved to a nearby wilderness, where he spent six years in silence, speaking only with God and eating roots and herbs. When Sabbas returned, he convinced him to come back. John treasured obscurity and humility and wished to live unknown to men, but could not. He stayed in his cell forty years, not turning away those who came for counsel, among them Cyril of Scythopolis, who wrote his life. Cyril asked him what to do with his life; John advised him to join the Lavra of Saint Euthymius; Cyril did not listen and, falling ill at a small monastery on the bank of the Jordan, repented; John appeared to him in a dream and rebuked him.

John also worked against the heresy of Origen. It is said that he saw clearly into the spiritual world and healed the sick. He fell asleep in 558, in the hundred and fourth year of his life. The oldest Slavic translation of his life is in the Suprasl Menaion of the eleventh century. His feast is on 3 December and 30 March.