Silvanus of Gaza

Venerable Silvanus of Gaza was a monk born in Palestine, one of the Desert Fathers, who died before the year 414. He led a community of twelve disciples in Scetis in Egypt, among them Zacharias, Mark the Calligrapher, Netras (later bishop of Paran) and Zeno. According to his hagiography, he had the gift of prophecy: he guessed his disciples' questions and knew their sins before they confessed them.

When, in the year 380, barbarian tribes invaded Egypt, the group moved from Scetis to Sinai, where it stayed about ten years, enough for Silvanus to become famous and to be visited by people from Egypt; the community gladly hosted visitors and tended a garden. Around 390 Silvanus and his disciples settled at Gaza, on the river Gerar. They followed the model of the hermit monasteries of Scetis and built several hermit cells along the watercourse, with a church and a communal building, like the lavras of the Judean desert. During the week they gave themselves to prayer and various forms of manual labour, while on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered for common prayer and meals, and Silvanus would visit the other monks.

Silvanus died before 414 and was succeeded by Zacharias, one of his disciples. Zeno, another disciple and later teacher of Peter the Iberian, founded another monastery around 440, two kilometres south-⁠east of Silvanus' monastery.