(ABOUT 450.)
[Commemorated on the same day by Greeks and Latins. Some old
Western Martyrologies honoured him on Feb. 27th. Authority, his
life by Simeon Logotheta.[57]]
S. John the Calybite is the Eastern counterpart of the Western S.
Alexis. At an early age he met a monk of the Sleepless Ones, founded by
S. Alexander, as mentioned in the immediately preceding life; and he was
so struck with what he heard of the religious life, that he desired to
enter it. Returning home, he asked his parents, who were wealthy, to
make him a present of the Holy Gospels. They, surprised that the boy
desired a book, instead of some article of dress or of play, purchased
him a handsomely illuminated and illustrated book of the Gospels. The
boy read, "He that loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy
of me." Then he ran away from home, and made his way to Gomon, where he
entered the Sleepless order. The archimandrite, or abbot, thinking him
too young, objected to receive him, but when the boy persisted, he made
him undergo the discipline of the monks. He remained there, however, six
years, and then a longing came over him to see his father and mother
again; so he told the superior, who said, "Did I not say to thee, thou
art too young. Go in peace to thy home." So John left the monastery. But
returning home, he did not make himself known to his parents, but,
changing clothes with a beggar, he crouched at the gate of his father's
house and begged. Then his father gave him daily food from his kitchen;
but after a while his mother, disliking the presence of a squalid beggar
at the door, bade the servants remove him to a little cot, and thence he
took his name of Calybite, or Cotter. Three years after, as he was
dying, he sent for his mother, and revealed himself to her.
He was buried beneath the hut, and his parents built a church over his
tomb.
Relics, in the church dedicated to him at Rome; his head at Besançon, in
the church of S. Stephen.