Lives

The Life of St. John, Bishop and Silent Lavra Abba Sava

1. To the first I offer for narration is Abba John, the silent of the Lavra of Blessed Sava, as the one who precedes all others both in time and in the brightness of life. This enlightened father John came from the Armenian Nicopolis and had parents Enkraty and Euphemia; they were proud of the wealth and nobility of the family and were distinguished in many state authorities, in military ranks, in city elderships, in the nobility at the royal court. Many stories and deeds of the Byzantines and Armenians will tell about them. But in order not to overwhelm my narrative at first, I am willing to omit it, proposing to tell only what is known to almost all who know it. He was born, as he himself told me, on the eighth day of the month of January, the seventh indiction, in the fourth year of the reign of the God-loving Marcian, and since his parents were Christians, he was brought up in a Christian way with his brothers.

2. After some time, when his parents died in Christ, this God-bearing man, dividing his father's property, dedicated himself to God and built in Nikopol itself a church of the All-Sung Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and renounced the affairs of life in the eighteenth year of his life; taking ten brethren to him who wished to be saved, he established a coenobia there. And throughout his youth he exerted great effort to abstain from the womb and to despise pride, knowing that the gluttony of the womb knows neither vigilance nor sanity, and pride cannot endure tranquility, and asceticism cannot be governed without vigilance, and purity, and humility. Thus he asceticized in his youth, and preserved his mind without soaring, and his word without condemnation, dissolved in divine salt; As for his disciples, in word and deed, he directed them to the ascetic life: he, since they were novices, did not burden them with the yoke of the canon, nor did he allow them to remain without labor and exercise, but leading them gradually and watering them with divine springs, he prepared them to bear fruit worthy of their calling.

3. When the twenty-eighth year of his life came and he shone with virtue, the metropolitan of Sebaste, impelled by the rumor that had spread about him and implored by the inhabitants of the city called Colonia, summoned him, as if for something else, and since he had passed through the succession of ecclesiastical degrees, he ordained him bishop of the said city, since his bishop had died. Having thus accepted the episcopate against his will, he did not change the order of monastic life, but also asceticized in the diocese as in a monastery. In particular, he avoided ablution, beware not only of being seen by others, but also of seeing himself naked, thinking of the nakedness of Adam and what is written in this part, and he believed that non-washing was one of the greatest virtues. In short, he made every effort to please God in fasting, in prayer, in chastity of the body and in purity of soul, always humbling thoughts and every magnificence that ascends to the understanding of God. And not only he, but also his brother Pergamius, who had become famous under both kings, Zinon and Anastasius, and who had passed through many offices, being enlightened by his virtue, exerted great diligence to please God. And his nephew Theodore, a glorious secretary, hearing about his uncle, who was growing old in virtue, and enlightened in his soul from these rumors, greatly pleased God with all his household. This Theodore now serves as an object of wonder for everyone, both for the Synclite and for our most pious emperor Justinian, because of his reason, honest life, true faith, compassion and almsgiving. But about this later — now I return to the sequence of time.

4. When this divine John had spent nine years in the episcopacy, it happened that his sister's husband, Pasinik by name, was ruling Armenia. As a result of satanic action, he began to oppress and disturb the church entrusted to John, not allowing its administrators to take proper care of church affairs, forcibly rejecting those who resorted to its statutes, and violating the inviolability of the statutes. The servant of God often asked and exhorted him, but he turned out to be even worse, since John's sister, Mary, had already died. Overwhelmed by great sorrow as a result of this, the righteous man was compelled to set off to Constantinople. Arriving there and arranging for the benefit of his church, towards the end of the reign of Zeno, and with the help of Euthymius, Archbishop of Constantinople, he had the God-pleasing intention to retire to the Holy City and renounce all worldly affairs. And having dismissed all the presbyters and clergy who were with him with the royal commands, secretly from all, he embarked alone on a ship and arrived at Jerusalem, and stopped at the first almshouse of the holy city, built by Blessed Eudocia, in which almshouse there is a chapel of the holy Martyr George. Arriving there and seeing the world's anxieties there, he offended his mind and with tears besought God to direct him to a place pleasing and silent, in order to be saved.

5. In the said almshouse, our honorable father John remained for a long time, spending a long time in the night vigil and in prayers to God; One night, finding himself alone in the courtyard of the almshouse and looking at the sky, he suddenly saw a star of light, having the form of a cross and coming to him, and heard a voice saying to him from this light: "If you want to be saved, follow this light." And when he believed, he immediately went out and followed him. Guided by him, he came to the great Lavra, which was among the saints of our father Sava, at the time when Sallust was Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the fourteenth indiction, in the thirty-eighth year of his life; in this year the God-made church of the Great Lavra was consecrated. After the death of Zeno, Anastasius took over the kingdom, as I heard from the saint himself. Arriving at the Great Lavra, he found Blessed Sava, who had formed a retinue of one hundred and fifty hermits, who lived in great poverty in relation to bodily needs, but who were rich in spiritual gifts. Blessed Sava, having received him, handed him over to the steward, as one of the novices, so that he would assign him obedience, not knowing the treasure that was in him. But let no one be surprised: the treasure of John's feats was revealed to the honorable elder Sava; let him quickly understand that when God wants to reveal to his saints, they are prophets, but when he wants to hide, they see in the likeness of the rest. And the prophet Elisha testifies to the word, speaking of the Shunammite woman, that "her soul is sick in her, and the Lord is hidden from me" (II Kings 4:27). The Divine John fulfilled every obedience, helping with all humility and readiness the steward and the rest of the fathers, raising water from the stream, preparing food for the workers and helping them in stonemaking and in other construction work, when the Lavra hospice was being built.

6. In the second year of his stay in the Lavra, when Castelius had been cleansed of the dwelling of demons, as I have already said in the life of Saints Sava, he labored there much with our father Sava and with some others, as he himself told me, when Abba Marcian, by divine revelation, sent food to them, who were in need and had nothing suitable for food. When the time came for the change of obediences, on the first indiction, the appointed steward appointed this great luminary as hospice and cook. And this obedience he accepted with readiness and joy and served with his help to all the fathers, serving each with all humility and modesty. When he was fulfilling this obedience, a community was built outside the Lavra, to the north, so that the renouncers would first of all learn monastic strictness there, and then, having studied the cenobitic rule exactly, live in the Lavra, confirmed by the divine Sava, who said: as the flower precedes the fruit, so the life in the coenobium precedes the hermit's. And so, when this coenobia was being built, this righteous man, being a hospice, in addition to other labors of the hospice, was compelled to cook food for the workers, then to carry weights and broth and other food, and to deliver them to the workers, who labored about ten stades from the hospice.

7. When the year of such obedience was fulfilled, and all the fathers were edified by his calmness, majesty, and spiritual intelligence, our father Sava gave him a cell for silence. The most honorable John, having taken his cell and received the command to be silent, remained in it for three years, for five days a week he did not show himself to any person at all and did not eat anything, but on Saturday and Sunday he came to church earlier than everyone else and left later than everyone else, standing the rite of psalmody firmly, with fear and all humility, according to what is said in the Psalms: "Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling" (Ps. II, 11). Such was his tenderness, that he wept greatly during the bloodless sacrifice and was not able to overcome himself, so that the fathers, seeing his gift of tears, were amazed and glorified the giver of blessings, God. At the end of three years, he was given the Lavra economy and God helped him in everything, and the Lavra was blessed, and the retinue multiplied in his obedience.

8. When he had fulfilled it, Blessed Sava wished to ordain him as a virtuous and perfect monk; and taking him to the holy city, on the sixth indiction, he brought him to the blessed Archbishop Elias, and, having told him about his virtues, asked him to be ordained a presbyter. And the archbishop, hearing about him, came to the Holy Place of the Skull, although to ordain him with his own hands. This great father, compelled to the point of impossibility of fleeing, said to the archbishop with his usual meaning: "Honorable father, since I have sinned, I ask Your Beatitude to tell you in private, and if you consider me worthy, then I will accept the consecration." And taking him to the ascent of Holy Golgotha, he said to him in private: "Spare my life, I beseech your holiness, and do not give away the secret to anyone, so that I do not depart from this country." When the archbishop gave him assurance, he said: "I, father, have been ordained bishop of this city, but because of my iniquities which have multiplied, I have fled and settled in the wilderness (Ps. LVIII, 4), hoping for God's help; I thought it right, while I was still in bodily strength, to serve and work for the fathers, so that, when I was exhausted, I might accept services from others without condemnation." The archbishop, hearing this and being amazed, summoned Blessed Sava and said: "He has told me something and it is impossible to consecrate him; but from now on he will be silent and let no one disturb him." And the archbishop, having said only this, dismissed them.

9. Blessed Sava, offended by his thoughts, withdrew about thirty stades from his great Lavra, to the west of Castelius, into a cave, where after that he built a coenobia and, prostrating himself before the face of God, said with tears: "For what sake, O Lord, did you despise me so much, that I was deceived and considered John worthy of the priesthood? And now, O Lord Lord, shew me about him, for my soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. XXVI, 38) — the vessel, which I considered sanctified and useful, and worthy of receiving the divine gift, turned out to be useless in the presence of Thy majesty." When Abba Sava spoke these and similar words with tears, and spent his nights in vigil, a certain angelic image appeared to him, saying: "John is not a useless vessel, but a vessel of election: he, having already been ordained a bishop, cannot become a presbyter." And here is the vision. Our father Sava, accustomed to the Theophany and the angelic vision, was not frightened, but rejoicing, he came to the cell of the divine John and, embracing him, said: "O Father John, you have hidden from me the gift of God in you, but the Lord has revealed it to me." And the divine John answered: "I am grieved, father, for I did not want anyone to know this secret; and now I will not be able to live in this place." The elder promised by the word of God not to reveal this to anyone at all.

10. And from then on he remained silent in the Lavra, not going out into church and not conversing with anyone except the one who served him, for four years, with the exception of the day of the consecration of the honorable house of the All-Holy Theotokos and the Ever-Virgin Mary, which took place in the Lavra, on the ninth indiction. Only then was he forced to go out and kiss Archbishop Elijah, who had come to the consecration. This patriarch, having conversed with him and loved his spiritual meaning and sweet conversation, revered him throughout the entire period of his episcopate.