A new image, available as a giclee print: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1198915338
(Original also available, inquire via email)
SAINT JOHN THE CLAIRVOYANT OF EGYPT
(c.305 - 394) Also known as St. John the Hermit, St. John the Anchorite, or St. John of Lycopolis, was one of the hermits of the Nitrian Desert. He began as a carpenter but at the age of twenty-five began to live a life of solitude. He spent a decade with the hermit, absorbing his master's ways. John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. Finally, he withdrew to the top of a cliff near Lycopolis, Egypt, where he could avoid all human contact. There he carved three small cells out of rock; one for sleeping, one for work and the last for praying. Then he walled them up with himself inside, leaving only a small window. He communicated through the window to people who brought him food and water twice a week. Crowds would gather on those two days to hear him preach. Eventually, a hospice was assembled nearby, where disciples could care for the pilgrims.
He was believed to possess the spiritual gift of prophecy and often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. He predicted future victories to the Emperor Theodosius the Great. St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Jerome, contemporaries, spoke highly of him.
He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life. John was tempted by devils and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman of blindness (a disciple poured drops of healing oil on her, one that St. John used) and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person.
John never ate until sunset and lived on a diet of dried fruit and vegetables for fifty years.
John prayed incessantly, and he spent the last three days of his life without food or drink, alone in prayer.
His feast day is March 27 in the Western churches and June 12 in Eastern Orthodoxy.
Original art: 2022, acrylic, pencil and gold leaf on paper.
