Withdrawal to the Desert
According to the synaxarion, a pious elder counseled John to seek a more isolated place for his ascetic struggle. He went to the desert monk Pharmutios — himself remembered as a hermit of the Egyptian desert and a disciple of Anthony the Great — and received his blessing to live alone in the wilderness.
John found an abandoned well, said to have been filled with snakes, scorpions, and other creatures, and lowered himself into it. There, the tradition relates, he lived for ten years in fasting, vigil, and prayer.
Ascetic Struggles
The synaxarion recounts that John was sustained not directly but through his spiritual father: the angel who brought food to the hermit Pharmutios also brought bread for John, a provision understood as guarding the young ascetic from spiritual pride.
His life is also remembered for his struggle against demonic temptation. By tradition, demons appeared to him in the forms of his mother, his sister, and his relatives and acquaintances in order to discourage his ascetic efforts; after persistent prayer, he commanded them to depart.
Repose and Veneration
After John's repose, the synaxarion relates that Saint Chrysikhios, an elder who had himself struggled in the desert for thirty years, came to bury him. Numerous miracles are said to have occurred afterward at the place of his ascetic labors.
He is commemorated on March 29, the same day as Saint Pharmutios. The Orthodox tradition titles him 'of Egypt,' locating his asceticism in the Egyptian desert, although some sources attach an Armenian origin to him through his mother; the accounts differ on these geographical details.
