Timothy of the Thebaid

Holy Venerable Timothy of the Thebaid was a hermit whom Saint Paphnutius of the Thebaid met in the desert. Wishing to see for himself the fathers who struggled there and to hear from them how they were saved, Paphnutius set out into the depths of the Thebaid desert. After eight days of travel he came upon a cave and understood from the tracks in the sand that someone lived in it.

Toward sunset he saw a herd of buffalo and a man walking among them. He was naked but clothed, as it were, in his long hair. It was Saint Timothy. At first he took Paphnutius for an apparition and began to pray, but Paphnutius assured him that he was a living man and a Christian. Timothy received him with hospitality and told him that he had been struggling in the desert for thirty years and for the first time was seeing a man. In his youth he had lived in a communal monastery, but a thought troubled him that he should be saved alone. He left, and lived near a city, supporting himself by the work of his hands, for he was a weaver. Once a woman came to him with an order, and he fell into sin with her. Coming to himself, he went far into the desert, where he patiently bore afflictions and illness as a deserved punishment from God. When he was ready to die of hunger, he received healing in a wonderful way.

From then on he lived in peace, in complete solitude, eating the fruit of the date palm and quenching his thirst at a spring. Paphnutius asked the elder to let him stay in the desert, but the elder replied that he could not bear the temptations of the demons to which the dwellers of the desert are subject, blessed him and gave him dates and water for the journey. Saint Timothy is commemorated on 25 June, in the new style; his name is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.