Venerable Marcian of Cyrrhus (+388)

The Venerable Marcian withdrew from the vanity of the world while still young, settled in the desert, and spent many years in seclusion, in unceasing prayer and strict fasting. At night, while singing the psalms, the saint never lit a candle, for his cell was lit by divine light. Some time later the Venerable Marcian accepted two disciples, who settled beside his hut, but even after this he continued his life of seclusion. Flavian, Patriarch of Antioch (commemorated 18 February), and other bishops asked the saint to give up his strict solitude for the benefit of the Christians, but the saint could not give up the nearness to the Lord gained by his life as a hermit. The venerable father taught those who came for counsel without leaving his cell. Before his end the saint told his disciple Eusebius to bury him secretly some distance from his cell. He died at the end of the fourth century.

The Venerable Marcian is also commemorated on 18 January.