Venerable John Climacus

Venerable John entered monastic life at Sinai at age 16 under the spiritual guidance of Abbot Martyrius. He spent about 40 years as a hermit in a locality at the foot of the mountain, gaining wide renown for wisdom and spiritual discernment — numerous pilgrims and monks sought his counsel.

Late in life he was, according to tradition against his own will, made abbot of the Sinai monastery. At the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, he wrote his principal work — "The Ladder" (Greek: Κλῖμαξ), describing thirty steps of spiritual ascent from renunciation of the world to the summit — Christian love. This work became one of the most important monuments of Orthodox ascetic literature, read in churches during Great Lent.

Before his death he appointed his own brother George as his successor and returned to his desert cell, where he reposed on March 30.

His feast is kept on the day of his repose (March 30/April 12), as well as on the 4th Sunday of Great Lent — a separate movable feast, alongside the Sundays of the Cross, St. Gregory Palamas, and St. Mary of Egypt. He is also commemorated in the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of Sinai.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: category righteous→venerable — John was a monk and abbot, not a layman "who did not take monastic vows," as the original stub erroneously claimed.