We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
St. Bessarion
Facts
Author and Publisher - Catholic Online
Printable Catholic Saints PDFs
Shop St. Bessarion
Bessarion is greatly venerated in the East, where his name in various forms is sometimes given in Baptism; e.g. Joseph Stalin's father was called Vissarion. He was a native of Egypt, and having heard the call to perfection he went into the wilderness, where he was a disciple first of St. Antony and then of St. Macarius. We are told that rather than live under a roof he wandered about like a bird, observing silence and subduing his flesh by mighty fasting; he is said to have once gone forty days without food, standing in prayer amid brambles. His neighborly charity led him to a height of perfection that was manifested by miracles: he made saltwater fresh, he several times brought rain during drought, he walked on the Nile, he overcame demons. Like so many other desert fathers, St. Bessarion lived to a great age; and he was compared by his admirers with Moses, Joshua, Elias, and John the Baptist. St. Bessarion is named in the Roman Martyrology on June 17th, but his usual date in the East is June 6th.
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >