Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/March 30

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John Climacus (Ἰωάννης τῆς Κλίμακος c. 525 – 30 March 606), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox , Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches.He was born in Syria, and came to the monastery and became a novice when he was about 16 years old, taught by monk named Martyrius. After the death of Martyrius, John, wishing to practise greater asceticism, withdrew to a hermitage at the foot of the mountain. In this isolation he lived for some twenty years, constantly studying the lives of the saints and thus becoming one of the most learned doctors of the Church. In 600, when he was about seventy-five years of age, the monks of Sinai persuaded him to put himself at their head. He acquitted himself of his functions as abbot with the greatest wisdom, and his reputation spread so far that pope Gregory the Great wrote to recommend himself to his prayers, and sent him a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai, in which the pilgrims were wont to lodge. Four years later he resigned his charge and returned to his hermitage to prepare for death.
Attributes:Clothed as a monk, sometimes with an abbot's paterissa (crozier), sometimes holding a copy of his Ladder
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