Venerable John the Silent, Formerly Bishop of Colonia (+558)
The Venerable John the Silent was born around 454 in Nicopolis in Armenia, into the family of the military commander Encratius and his wife Euphemia. The boy began studying Holy Scripture early, and loved solitude and prayer with his whole heart.
After the death of his parents John built a church of the Most Holy Theotokos with the property he had inherited. From the age of eighteen the blessed one lived by this church together with ten other monks. At the request of the inhabitants of the city of Colonia, the Metropolitan of Sebaste consecrated the twenty-eight-year-old John bishop. Even after his appointment as chief shepherd the saint lived ascetically as before.
In the tenth year of John’s episcopate Pazinicus, the husband of the chief shepherd’s sister Mary, was appointed governor of Armenia. The new ruler interfered high-handedly in spiritual and church affairs, and this caused disorder in the life of the Church. Then Saint John went to Constantinople and, through the mediation of Archbishop Euphemius, asked the Emperor Zeno to protect the Armenian Church from gross encroachment.
Grieved by the general turmoil and strife, the blessed chief shepherd secretly left his eparchy and boarded a ship bound for Jerusalem. With tears he besought the Lord to show him where he should continue his labours. God heard the saint’s supplication: a star appeared to him and led him to the Lavra of Sabbas the Sanctified. John, who concealed his rank, was received into the monastery as a simple novice. With the blessing of the holy hegumen Sabbas (commemorated 5 December), the Venerable John performed the heaviest tasks for more than four years. Seeing the humility and diligence of the Lord’s chosen one, the superior considered him worthy to be ordained presbyter. Then John was compelled to reveal his secret to Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem (494–517). With the patriarch’s blessing the saint took on the labour of silence, and the Lord soon revealed his secret to Saint Sabbas as well.
After this the saint wished to make his labours still stricter; he left the lavra and went into the desert, where he lived for nine years, feeding only on plants. The venerable father was miraculously saved from a devastating Saracen raid: the Lord sent him a lion as a guard. God miraculously revealed to all the monks of the monastery that the holy ascetic was a bishop.
When John had turned seventy, the holy hegumen Sabbas the Sanctified died. The hierarch was terribly grieved. Then the blessed Sabbas, now raised up to the Kingdom of heaven, appeared to the hermit in a divine vision, comforted him, and foretold that an irreconcilable struggle with heresy lay ahead of him. And indeed, soon John was compelled to come out of his seclusion to strengthen the brethren in the struggle with the foul heresy of Origen.
The Venerable John the Silent committed his soul to the Lord in peace at the age of a hundred and four (the Church also commemorates him twice more in the year: on 30 March and 7 December).
