Description
St. Pachomios was a pagan by birth, born in a.d. 292 in Thebes, Egypt. He was pressed into the Roman army when 20, and was touched by Christians ministering to prisoners. Later he converted and became a monk under Elder Palamon. After living as a hermit near St. Anthony the Great, he settled in Tabennisi and built cells for the monks to come. In time they came in hundreds and thousands, and St. Pachomios founded many monasteries and was given the form for monastic clothing by an angel dressed that way. He also wrote the first rule for Cenobitic monasticism.
St. David of Thessalonica was born in the 5th century and when young fled to the Monastery of the Holy Martyrs Theodore and Mercurius where he was tonsured a monk. He lived a deeply ascetic life, and was in time very inspired by the lives of the Sylites, St. Symeon the Elder, St. Symeon the Younger, St. Daniel, and St. Patapius. Yearning to live more ascetically, he climbed up into an almond tree on the left side of the nearby church, and lived there for three years, exposed to every weather. He then lived in a cell, working miracles, and went to God in a.d. 540.