From: "Traudel" 

March 27th - St. John of Egypt, Prophet of the Thebaid (also known as John
of Lycopolis)

Born at Asyut (Assiut or Lycopolis), Egypt, c. 304; died near there in 394 or
395; feast is October 17 in the Coptic Church. John was a carpenter (or
shoemaker) at Asyut who at 25 became a hermit on a neighboring mountain for
the
next 40 years. To test his humility and obedience the ancient anchorite who
resided there made John perform seemingly ridiculous acts, such as water a
dry
stick for a whole year, all of which he executed with the utmost fidelity. He
seems to have lived with the old hermit for the 12 years until the holy man's
death, then spent four years in various monasteries. When he was about 40,
John walled himself into a cell on the top of a rock near
Asyut, where he never ate until after sunset, and then very sparingly. Weekdays
he spent his time in prayer. On Saturdays and Sundays, he spoke through the
little window in his cell to the many men who came to him for instruction
and
spiritual advice. He allowed a type of hospital to be built near his cell, where
some of his disciples took care of his visitors. These men were drawn by
his reputation for miracles of healing, gift of prophecy, and ability to
read souls.

Saint John's gift for foretelling the future was such that he was given the
surname `Prophet of the Thebaid.' When Emperor Theodosius the Elder was
attacked
by the tyrant Maximus, who had killed Emperor Gratian in 383 and dethroned
Valentinian in 387, he consulted John about the proposed war against
Maximus.
John foretold that Theodosius would be victorious, almost without blood.
The emperor, full of confidence, marched into the West, defeated the more
numerous
armies of Maximus twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in
Aquileia. He returned triumphant to Constantinople, and attributed his
victories
to the prayers of Saint John, who also foretold him the events of his other
wars, the incursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire.

In 392, Eugenius, by the assistance of Arbogastes, who had murdered the emperor
Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the West. Theodosius instructed
Eutropins the Eunuch to try to bring John to Constantinople; if he would
not come, Eutropins was to consult with the saint whether it was God's will
that he
should march against Eugenius, or wait his arrival in the East. John would not
leave his cell but predicted the emperor's success, but this time many
lives would be lost and Theodosius would die in Italy. Theodosius marched
against Eugenius, and lost 10,000 men in the first engagement. He was
almost defeated:
but renewing the battle on the next day, September 6, 394, he was entirely
victorious by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even the heathen
poet
Claudian acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West, January 17, 395, leaving his
two sons emperors (Arcadius in the East, and Honorius in the West).

Among Saint John's reported miracles was the restoration of sight to the wife of
a senator through the vehicle of oil he blessed. It had to be through such
a medium with women, for he refused to speak with any woman. One
interesting incident is related by Evagrius, Palladius, and Augustine in
his treatise of "On
the Care for the Dead". One of the emperor's officers begged John to allow his
wife to speak to him. She had made the difficult and dangerous journey to
Lycopolis for that purpose. The holy man answered, that during his stricter
enclosure for the last forty years, he had imposed on himself an inviolable
rule
not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the granting of
her request. The officer returned to his virtuous, but disappointed, wife, who
begged her husband to try again.

Returning to John, the husband said that his wife would die of grief if he
refused her request. The saint said to him: "Go to your wife, and tell
her that
she shall see me tonight, without coming hither or stirring out of her house."
When she was asleep that night, the man of God appeared to her in her dream, and
said: "Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come to visit you; but I
must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing God's servants on
earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their actions. As for me,
why did you
desire to see me? Am I a saint or a prophet like God's true servants? I am
a sinful and weak man. It is, therefore, only in virtue of your faith that
I have
had recourse to our Lord who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases with
which you are afflicted. Live always in the fear of God, and never forget his
benefits." He added several proper instructions for her conduct, and
disappeared.

Upon awakening the woman described to her husband the person she had seen in her
dream and he confirmed that it was John. Whereupon he returned the next day to
thank him, but when he arrived, the saint would not permit it. The officer
received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne.

In 394, Palladius, who later became bishop of Helenopolis and one of the authors
of John's vita, visited the saint in July. When he arrived, he found that
he would have to wait until Saturday to speak with John. He returned that
day in
the early morning and saw the saint sitting at his window talking with others.
Through an interpreter, introductions were made and Palladius was identified as
a member of Evagrius's community.

Their conversation was interrupted by the hasty arrival of Alypius, governor of
the province, in great haste. John asked Palladius to step aside for the
governor with whom the saint engaged in a long discussion while an
increasingly
impatient Palladius had to wait. The weary man began to complain internally that
the saint was showing preference to rank. He was about to leave when John sent
his interpreter to stop him saying, "Go, bid that brother not to be impatient: I
am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to him."

Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him, waited
patiently. When Alypius had left, John called Palladius, and asked:
"Why were
you angry, unjustly imputing guilt to me in your mind? To you I can speak at any
other time, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you in
the paths of salvation. But this governor, being involved in the hurry of
temporal affairs, and having come to receive some wholesome advice during
the
short time his affairs will allow him time to breathe in, how could I give you
the preference?"

He then told Palladius what passed in his heart: his secret temptations to quit
his solitude. He told Palladius that it was the devil who tempted him with
images of his father's loneliness at his absence, and that he might induce
his
brother and sister to embrace a solitary life. The holy man told him to ignore
such suggestions, because his siblings had already renounced the world, and his
father would live seven more years. He foretold him that he should meet
with great persecutions and sufferings, and should be a bishop, but with
many afflictions: all which came to pass, though at that time extremely
improbable.
The text of Palladius's account of their meeting still exists.

That same year John was visited by Saint Petronius with six other monks.
The hermit asked if any of them was in holy orders and they answered,
"no." In fact,
Petronius was a deacon but had not disclosed this to his fellow travellers out
of a false sense of humility because he was the youngest in the company. When
John pointed to Petronius and said, "This man is a deacon,"
Petronius denied it.
John took the younger man's hand and kissed it, while saying: "My son, take care
never to deny the grace you have received from God, lest humility betray
you into a lie. We must never lie, under any presence of good whatever,
because no
untruth can be from God."

When one of the company begged for a cure, Saint John answered replied that such
diseases are beneficial to the soul. Nevertheless, he blessed some oil and gave
it to the monk, who vomited and was from that moment perfectly cured.

When they next visited him, John bore a joyful countenance- evidence of the joy
of his soul. They talked about their journey from Jerusalem, then he provided
the monks with a long discourse about banishing pride and vanity from their
hearts in order to attain all other virtues. He provided examples of many
monks,
who, by secretly harboring vanity, fell also into scandalous
irregularities, including one who, after living a most holy and austere
life, fell into fornication because of his vanity and then, through
despair, into all manner of
disorders. He told of another who left his solitude to seek fame, but through a
sermon he preached in a monastery along the way, was mercifully converted and
became an eminent penitent.

After entertaining Saint Petronius and his fellows for three days, Saint John
gave them his blessing. As they were preparing to leave, he said, "Go in peace,
my children. Today Alexandria receives news of Prince Theodosius's victory over
the tyrant Eugenius, but this excellent emperor will soon end his life by a
natural death."

A few days later, the monks learned that Saint John had died. He had foreseen
his own death and refused to see anyone during the last three days.
Instead, Saint John spent his time in prayer and expired on his knees.
Saint John's reputation for holiness is said to have been second only to
that of Saint Antony. He was much admired by his contemporaries SS. Jerome,
Augustine, and John Cassian, who attributes the extraordinary gifts John
received from God to
the saint's humility and ready obedience (Attwater, Attwater2,
Benedictines, Gill, Husenbeth).


Saint Quote:
"The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish. Let no man
despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost of the
apostles, denied the Lord three times before a little servant girl, but he
repented and
wept bitterly.
-Cyril of Jerusalem" (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).

Bible Quote:
He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
-St. John 6:35



The fourth glorious mystery prayer of the Eucharistic Rosary, to be offered
before the Blessed Sacrament:

The Death and Assumption of Mary, offered for filial devotion to Mary:

O Jesus, no longer could Thou leavest here below Thy blessed Mother;
already she didst hear Thy voice calling her, and amid the transports of an
ineffable communion, Thy love didst take away her soul from the land of
exile.  But her virginal body, like that of her divine Son, must not know
corruption; so Thou didst raise her from the dead, and, brilliant as the
sun, assume her soaring on angels' wings to the seat of eternal glory.

O Jesus, our resurrection and our life, we adore Thee and we pray that,
through the intercession of Thy holy Mother, we may die in the arms of her
who is also our own Mother, after having received in a fervent communion
the pledge of our glorious resurrection.

Imprimatur:  + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, Sept 19, 1908.

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