Venerable Palamon of Thebaid

DATE CORRECTION: the previously listed date "August 5" was not confirmed by any source checked; the most authoritatively attested date (Wikipedia, pravenc.ru) is August 12. HONEST NOTE: this date is not found on the current ROC calendar (days.pravoslavie.ru) — the saint is known almost exclusively through the Life of St. Pachomius rather than as an independently glorified figure with an official commemoration.

Venerable Palamon was a hermit living near the abandoned village of Sheneset (Chenoboskion) in the Egyptian Thebaid, following an extremely strict rule: fasting on bread, salt, and water (sometimes going several days without food at all), completely excluding oil and vegetables, keeping long night vigils (about 50 psalms by night, 60 by day), fighting sleep by dragging a sand-filled basket between two points in his cell. He supported himself and the poor through manual labor — weaving cloth, baskets, and rope.

Around 314 the young Pachomius (later "the Great," founder of cenobitic monasticism) sought him out; Palamon initially refused him as too inexperienced and unready for the rigors of the desert, but relented when Pachomius promised total obedience. Pachomius spent about seven to ten years under his direction. When Pachomius received his vision to found a communal monastery at Tabennisi, Palamon accompanied him, helping with the construction, blessed the founding of the monastery, and prophesied its future renown, dying shortly afterward; Pachomius buried him near his cell and honored his memory. Palamon represents the older, austere solitary/small-group tradition out of which cenobitic monasticism grew.

His feast is kept on August 12/25.