Saint John the Dwarf

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St John the Dwarf

Celebrated on October 17th

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St John lived sometime in the 5th century. As a young man, he went into the Egyptian desert to become a hermit. He believed that in order to achieve spiritual perfection he should pray constantly. St John had a reputation for being very absent-minded. He was not interested in news of the outside world and had no sense of time. But he was greatly respected by his fellow monks for his holiness and wisdom. According to ancient texts, he helped train a former courtier, Arsenius, who became a monk, by treating him with near contempt.

According to legend, while he was a novice, John was told to water a dead stick every day. He continued to do this for three years until one day it began to sprout leaves and bear fruit. Historians think it is likely this story was invented in monastic circles to illustrate the practice of obedience.

St John died after fleeing a Berber invasion. His last words are said to have been: “I have never followed my own will, nor did I teach another what I did not first practice myself.”
(from ICN)
 
A few of his quotes/stories (from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers)
  • Abba John the Dwarf said, ‘I am like a man sitting under a great tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming against him in great numbers. When he cannot withstand them any longer, he runs to climb the tree and is saved. It is just the same with me; I sit in my cell and I am aware of evil thoughts coming against me, and when I have no more strength against them, I take refuge in God by prayer and I am saved from the enemy.’
  • Abba John said, ‘We have put the light burden on one side, that is to say, self-accusation, and we have loaded ourselves with a heavy one, that is to say, self-justification.’
  • Abba John said, ‘Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.’
  • Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.
  • Abba John said to his brother, ‘Even if we are entirely despised in the eyes of men, let us rejoice that we are honored in the sight of God.’
  • The old man Abba John the Dwarf said, ‘You know that the first blow the devil gave to Job was through his possessions; and he saw that he had not grieved him nor separated him from God. With the second blow, he touched his flesh, but the brave athlete did not sin by any word that came out of his mouth in that either. In fact, he had within his heart that which is of God, and he drew on that source unceasingly.’
 
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