John Calybite

Description

John Calybite[a] (or John Calabites, Calibita, Chalybita, Calabytes, Kalabytes; died c. 450) was a Greek monk and hermit who is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church. He left home at a young age and for several years was a monk in Jerusalem. He returned home disguised as a beggar, and his parents did not recognize him, but gave him a hut to live in. He revealed himself to his mother when on his deathbed. His feast day is celebrated on 15 January.

The Saint John Kalyvitis born in Istanbul in the late 4th century. He was the son of the senator Eutropius and Theodora, who came from Rome. At a very early age, John requested and received as a gift from his parents a Gospel and wholeheartedly devoted to God’s word. His father, however, wanted him to worldly maxims so, the young John still decided to sneak from home to become a monk. He lived in the monastery of unsleeping, where abbot was St. Marcellus, while his parents looked after him and found no trace of them, considered him anymore dead.
After six years he returned to his family home, unrecognizable as a beggar, crummy and boned by fasting. His parents accepted him as a monk and his father offered him to stay in the room of the child who believed that he had died. John revealed his identity and asked to build one hut on the edge of the garden where he lived the last three years of his life. This took its name “Kalyvitis”.
Προαισθανθείς το θάνατο του, αποκαλύφθηκε στους γονείς του και μετά από μικρό διάστημα πέθανε (γύρω στο 450 μΧ.). Ο ενταφιασμός του Ιωάννη έγινε στο χώρο της καλύβας του και στη συνέχεια οι γονείς του ανέγειραν ναό πάνω από τον τάφο του. Η μνήμη του εορτάζεται στις 15 Ιανουαρίου.