ON ST. JOHN THE SOLDIER,
PERHAPS AT ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT.
From the Calendars of the Greeks and the conjecture of our Rader.
CommentaryJohn, Soldier in Egypt, perhaps at Alexandria (St.) G. H.
In the Manuscript Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, granted to us by our colleagues at Paris, Sacred cult. and in the printed Menaea and the Milanese Manuscripts of the Ambrosian library, and others, there is celebrated the Memory of the holy John
the soldier, that is, the Memory of St. John the Soldier, or (as some will have it, στρατηλάτου, of the Commander, or of an illustrious and veteran Soldier. Who he may be, from so few words, with no indication of place or time added, is difficult to know. Our Matthew Rader, in his Observations, altogether judges him to be John the Alexandrian soldier, Life of John the Alexandrian Soldier. some Life of whom John Moschus brings forth in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 23, in these words: This same thing also the same Abbot Palladius narrated to us, saying: There was in Alexandria a certain Soldier (in Greek τὶς στρατιώτης) John by name, having this rule of life. On single days from morning until the ninth hour he sat in the monastery alone, beside the steps of St. Peter, clothed in haircloth, and weaving little baskets, keeping silence altogether, and speaking nothing to anyone. He sat working with his hands, and sang only this sweetly: Lord, from my hidden things cleanse me, that I be not confounded in praying. When he had said this verse, for nearly one hour he kept silence: and again he took up the same verse, and repeated it seven times through the whole day, saying nothing else at all. But at the ninth hour he put off the haircloth, and put on the military habit, that is, his own garments, and so hastened to his proper standards. With this man I too remained eight years, and was much edified by his silence and his institute. Thus far he. If therefore he is to be understood here, his arena was Alexandria of Egypt, and the time of his life around the year six hundred, or those next following.