Venerable Sisoes the Great

Saint Sisoes the Great was an Egyptian ascetic and hermit, one of the great fathers of the Skete desert in the fourth and fifth centuries. While still young he left the world for the wilderness, becoming a disciple and close companion of Saint Anthony the Great. After his teacher's death, Sisoes settled in the very cave on the mountain where Anthony himself had struggled, and spent about sixty years there in solitude, receiving the gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking. He became renowned for his profound humility: when asked whether a single year sufficed for repentance, he answered that he trusted in God's mercy, which accepts sincere repentance even within three days. According to tradition, a dead boy once brought to him for a blessing was unwittingly raised to life by the saint's word, a miracle over which Sisoes grieved rather than rejoiced, shunning human glory. He is widely depicted in icons standing in sorrow over the open tomb and skeletal remains of Alexander the Great — an image recalling the vanity of earthly glory before death. He reposed around the year 429.