Venerable Bessarion the Wonderworker, of Egypt (IV–V)

The Venerable Bessarion the Wonderworker, of Egypt (IV–V), was baptised in his youth, after which he lived with great self-restraint. Moved by divine zeal, the father made a pilgrimage to the holy places of Jerusalem. In the desert of the Jordan he visited the Venerable Gerasimus (commemorated 4 March), visited other holy fathers too, and from each of them took over the virtues in which they excelled. Returning to Egypt, Bessarion was tonsured a monk and became a disciple of Saint Isidore of Pelusium (commemorated 4 February). The saint took a vow of silence, took food once a week, and sometimes went a full forty days without food or drink. Once, sunk in prayer, the venerable father stood motionless on his feet for forty days, neither taking food nor sleeping.

Saint Bessarion received from God the gift of wonderworking: when his disciple grew very thirsty on the road, the venerable father made undrinkable water sweet; through his prayer the Lord sent down rain; he could walk across a river on foot; he cast out demons; but he did all this in secret, to guard himself against glory. His humility was so great that once, when the celebrating priest ordered a monk who had fallen into sin to leave the church, Saint Bessarion went out with him, saying: “I too am a sinner.” The venerable father slept either standing or sitting; he spent most of his life under the open sky in solitary prayer, and reposed peacefully in deep old age.