Saint John the Hut-Dweller was the son of rich and illustrious
parents, and was born in Constantinople the early fifth century. He
received a fine education, and he mastered rhetoric and philosophy by
the age of twelve. He also loved to read spiritual books. Perceiving the
vanity of worldly life, he chose the path that was narrow and extremely
difficult. Filled with longing to enter a monastery, he confided his
intention to a passing monk. John made him promise to come back for him
when he returned from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and take him to his
monastery.
He asked his parents for a Gospel so that he might
study the words of Christ. John’s parents hired a calligrapher to copy
the text, and had the volume bound in a golden cover studded with gems.
John read the Gospel constantly, delighting in the Savior’s words.
The
monk kept his promise to come back for John, and they went secretly to
Bithynia. At the monastery of the “Unsleeping” (Akoimitoi), he received
monastic tonsure. The young monk began his ascetical labors with zeal,
astonishing the brethren with his unceasing prayer, humble obedience,
strict abstinence, and perseverance at work.
After six years, he
began to undergo temptations. He remembered his parents, how much they
loved him, and what sorrow he caused them. He regretted leaving them,
and was filled with a burning desire to see them again.
St John
explained his situation to the igumen St Marcellus (December 29) and he
asked to be released from the monastery. He begged the igumen for his
blessing and prayers to return home. He bid farewell to the brethren,
hoping that by their prayers and with the help of God, he would both see
his parents and overcome the snares of the devil. The igumen then
blessed him for his journey.
St John returned to Constantinople,
not to resume his former life of luxury, but dressed as a beggar, and
unknown to anyone. He settled in a corner by the gates of his parents’
home. His father noticed the “pauper,” and began to send him food from
his table, for the sake of Christ. John lived in a small hut for three
years, oppressed and insulted by the servants, enduring cold and frost,
unceasingly conversing with the Lord and the holy angels.
Before
his death, the Lord appeared to the monk in a vision, revealing that the
end of his sorrows was approaching, and that in three days he would be
taken into the Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, he asked the steward to give
his mother a message to come to him, for he had something to say to
her.
At first, she did not wish to go, but she was curious to
know what this beggar had to say to her. Then he sent her another
message, saying that he would die in three days. John thanked her for
the charity he had received, and told her that God would reward her for
it. He then made her promise to bury him beneath his hut, dressed in his
rags. Only then did the saint give her his Gospel, which he always
carried with him, saying, “May this console you in this life, and guide
you to the next life.”
She showed the Gospel to her husband,
saying that it was similar to the one they had given their son. He
realized that it was, in fact, the very Gospel they had commissioned for
John. They went back to the gates, intending to ask the pauper where he
got the Gospel, and if he knew anything about their son. Unable to
restrain himself any longer, he admitted that he was their child. With
tears of joy they embraced him, weeping because he had endured privation
for so long at the very gates of his parental home.
The saint
died in the mid-fifth century, when he was not quite twenty-five years
old. On the place of his burial the parents built a church, and beside
it a hostel for strangers. When they died, they were buried in the
church they had built.
In the twelfth century the head of the
saint was taken by Crusaders to Besançon (in France), and other relics
of the saint were taken to Rome.
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