Venerable Chariton the Confessor,
Abbot of Palestine
September 28th
Tortured relentlessly for his faith by the Romans, St. Chariton the Confessor refused to denounce Jesus Christ – and then went on to found the series of monasteries that made this monk a legendary figure among the early saints of the Holy Church. His dramatic story looms as a classic example of how trust in the Lord can help a true believer endure any hardship and prevail against any enemy, no matter how strong.
St. Chariton’s story begins near the middle of the 3rd Century after Christ, in the ancient Phoenician city of Iconium, where this ascetic and longsuffering figure was born to a life of extraordinary self-mortification. Converted to Christianity as a young man, the virtuous Chariton was inspired throughout his tumultuous life by the example of the first Christian martyress – St. Thekla, also a longtime resident of Iconium. During all the torments that pursued St. Chariton as his destiny unfolded in Palestine and elsewhere, it would be the sublime image of the martyred St. Thekla that sustained him, along with what he often described as the “life-bearing armor of the Cross.”
His own troubles began in Palestine under the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian, according to most historians, when the provincial authorities arrested and tried him for being a Christian. Confronted with this charge, St. Chariton proudly confirmed the fact that he had been converted to the Gospel and then infuriated his accusers by loudly proclaiming to the Roman Tribunal: “All your gods are demons, and were cast from the heaven into the nethermost hell!”
Predictably enough, the outraged Roman authorities responded with a spasm of naked violence in which four hulking guards stretched the saint upon the ground, beat him mercilessly . . . and then burned his helpless body with flaming coals. But each time they struck St. Chariton, he declared his faith more loudly – while also calling upon the noble St. Thekla to assist him in his hour of anguish.
Somehow, the bruised Christian managed to remain alive. Lacerated and bleeding profusely, he lay near the point of expiring in his prison cell . . . when all at once his grave wounds were miraculously healed. Later still, upon the accession of Tacitus to the throne of the emperor in 275 A.D., the ferocious persecution of the Christians was halted for a time and St. Chariton was permitted to travel to Jerusalem on a holy pilgrimage.
Once again, however, he found himself victimized by fate – after a band of roving bandits kidnapped the hapless pilgrim near the Palestinian city of Jericho and abducted him to a cave in Wadi Faran, where they bound him and left him stretched on the ground. St. Chariton began to pray, and Providence immediately intervened. It happened when a group of snakes entered the cave in search of food and came upon an open container of wine. As they drank the sugary liquid, deadly venom leaked from the bodies into the container. And when the bandits returned to toast each other triumphantly over a successful robbery they had just completed, the poison took hold quickly and killed every one of them!
Eventually released from his bonds, the abstemious St. Chariton characteristically turned their evil actions into good – by giving all of their stolen gold away to the poor. Then, having decided to become an ascetic monk, he settled down to a life of prayer and self-deprivation, right there in the cave where he had been held captive. In the end, he would convert this robbers’ cave into a famous Palestinian monastery known as the “Tharan Monastery.” Eventually, this quietly self-effacing and self-denying monk would go on to found two other monasteries, before his death in 350. The first of these retreats – called the “Monastery of Chariton” – would be founded at Jericho, the great Palestinian city located only a few miles west of the Jordan River. The second monastery, erected at Souka, would eventually become known as the “Old Lavra,” a place of legendary piety and asceticism for generations of monks.
After inspiring thousands of Palestinians to convert to Christianity – with many of them becoming monks who would then spend their lives in prayer and contemplation – the elderly St. Chariton was finally buried in a simple grave near his monastery at Souka, only a few yards from the robbers’ cave where his destiny had unfolded so many years before. To this day, the sacred practice of tonsuring monks is credited to a practice instituted by St. Chariton, who also devised many other ascetic rules for devout monks to follow.
A faithful adherent of the monastic life, this Holy Land saint established practices of prayer, veneration and self-denial that remain hallmarks of Christian piety more than 16 centuries after his death.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
With the streams of thy tears, thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert; and by thy sighings from the depths, thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining with miracles upon the world, O Chariton our righteous father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
Delighting in abstinence, O godly-minded one, and reining in the desires of thy flesh, thou wast seen to be increasing in faith. And thou didst blossom forth like the tree of life in the midst of Eden, O all-blessed and most sacred Chariton.
