Venerable John Climacus (+649)
The Venerable John Climacus (+649) is acknowledged by the Church as one of the greatest ascetics. He is the author of the remarkable God-inspired work “The Ladder”, and so the venerable father is called the Author of the Ladder.
Almost no information about the origin of the Venerable John has been preserved. There is a tradition that he was born around 570 and was the son of Saints Xenophon and Mary (commemorated 26 January). At sixteen John came to the monastery of Sinai. His teacher and guide was Abba Martyrius. After four years of life in the monastery John was tonsured a monk. Abba Strategius, a monk who laboured on Mount Sinai, foretold to him that he would become a luminary of the holy Church. For nineteen years the Venerable John lived in obedience to his spiritual father. After the death of Abba Martyrius Saint John chose the life of a hermit and withdrew into the desert called Tholas, where he spent forty years in silence, fasting, prayer and repentance.
The Venerable John had a disciple named Moses. Once the venerable father told the novice to bring earth for the vegetable garden. Exhausted by the midday heat, Moses lay down at the foot of a cliff. At that moment Saint John was resting in his cell. Suddenly a man full of dignity appeared to him and said: “Why dost thou rest, when Moses is in danger?” The Venerable John stood up to pray. When the disciple returned, the elder asked him whether anything had happened to him. The monk answered that as he lay resting at the foot of the cliff he had heard in his sleep the voice of his elder calling him, and he had jumped up and run. Suddenly a stone broke away from the cliff and fell on the very spot where Moses had been lying.
The Venerable John ate whatever the rule of monastic life did not forbid. At night he slept as much as was needed to keep up his strength. Endowed with the highest understanding and deep spiritual experience, the father gladly instructed everyone who came to see him. When he was reproached for talking too much, the Venerable John stopped speaking altogether and did not utter a word for a whole year. The envious ones realised their error and besought the venerable father not to deprive them of his soul-profiting conversation.
To hide his labours from men, the Venerable John often withdrew into a cave, but the fame of his ascetic life was known everywhere. People streamed to him in an unbroken flow to ask for advice or prayer. At the age of seventy-four the holy father was chosen abbot of the monastery of Sinai. In the last years of his life Saint John was granted by the Lord the gifts of wonderworking and foresight.
At the request of Saint John, abbot of the monastery of Raithu (commemorated on Cheesefare Saturday), Saint John wrote “The Ladder”, a guide to attaining spiritual perfection. The aim of this work is to teach the Christian that self-sacrifice and ascetic labour are necessary for life. First of all one must be cleansed of sins, root out the defects and passions of the old man, and then restore the image of God in man. Although the book was written for monks, through it every Christian learns to climb the rungs of the ladder of the spiritual life and to draw near to the Lord.
