Venerable James the Faster

Venerable James the Faster labored in Phoenicia near the city of Porphyreon in the 6th century. For fifteen years he lived in a cave in ascetic labors and received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking; through his influence many of the local inhabitants turned to Christ. To avoid worldly fame and the temptation of vainglory, he withdrew to a more remote place and lived there in a new cave for thirty years. After healing a girl possessed by a demon, he fell into sin with her, and then, to conceal what he had done, killed her and threw her body into a river. Overwhelmed by despair at the weight of his sin, he was strengthened by a chance conversation with a hermit, shut himself in a cave, and for ten years mourned his sin in unceasing repentance until he received divine assurance of forgiveness. The Life of James the Faster is one of the best-known Prologue accounts of an ascetic's fall and complete restoration through repentance. Commemorated March 4/17.