John
was born in Nicopolis in Armenia in the year 454 into a noble and
virtuous family. Unusually devout even from childhood, John did not
pursue the careers popular in his family; instead, after the death of
his parents, he was divinely inspired to build a monastery where he
afterwards lived with ten other young men, living the life of monks.
John was only eighteen years old. Under his direction, they led a
devoted life of work and piety, gaining for him a reputation of
leadership and sanctity. Because of this, the Archbishop of Sabaste was
moved to consecrate John as Bishop of Colonia in Armenia at the young
age of twenty-eight. Although he felt himself insufficient and unworthy
of the office, John accepted the position with humility and governed his
diocese for nine years before he decided to resign and fulfill his
desire to live a life of seclusion. Thus he found his way to Jerusalem.
While
at prayer one night, John was granted a vision in which he was guided
to the monastery of St. Sabas and there the pilgrim was granted
permission to dwell in a lonely hermitage to pursue uninterrupted
contemplation.
Such was his sanctity that after four years,
having disclosed to no one that he had once been a bishop, and St. Sabas
wishing to have John ordained to holy orders, the abbot presented him
to the Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem. However, upon their arrival at
Calvary, John requested a private audience with the patriarch and
disclosed his long-held secret. Upon learning of his previous
consecration, St. Sabas was startled and reproached John for keeping the
knowledge from him. Abashed at being discovered, John desired to
abscond from the monastery. However, St. Sabas was able to convince him
to remain by promising to keep his secret. Hence, John continued to
reside in his cell for four more years, speaking to no one save the one
who brought him his necessities.
In the year 503, trouble –
caused by certain disruptive members of the community – was stirring in
the cloister and St. Sabas was forced to leave his own monastery;
consequently, John also decided to leave and went into a nearby
wilderness where he lived in prayer, mortification and silence for six
years. Only when St. Sabas was finally restored to his community was he
again able to persuade John to also return. However, having become
accustomed to conversing only with God, John was unable to find anything
but emptiness in all else. Pursuing once more his own obscurity and
humility, he retired to his old solitary cell and remained in that
dwelling for forty more years. During that time, he never turned away
any of the people who came seeking his instruction and counsel. One of
these whom John instructed was a young man of sixteen named Cyril who
later wrote John’s life.
John died in 558 at the age of one
hundred and four – he had lived in solitude for seventy-six years,
interrupted only by the nine years of his episcopate as bishop of
Colonia.
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