Venerable Chariton the Confessor (†c. 350) — September 28 / October 11 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, September 28 according to the Julian Calendar (October 11 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Venerable Chariton the Confessor.

Venerable Chariton the Confessor suffered for Christ at Iconium sometime between the years 270 and 324. The godless seized him and demanded that he offer sacrifice to false gods, but the saint firmly refused. The executioners stripped him of his garments and beat him with oxhide thongs, and then, by order of the governor, cast him into prison. The persecutor first tried to win him over with flattery, then with promises of honor, and at last heaped fresh tortures upon him: he burned the saint’s breast with fire, put him in fetters, and sent him back to the dungeon.

In time the persecution of Christians subsided, and the imprisoned faithful were set free. Saint Chariton also regained his liberty, and, as one now dead to this passing world and wishing only to live for Christ, he set out for the holy city of Jerusalem. On the way he was seized by robbers, who shut him in a cave while they themselves roamed the roads, lying in wait for other travelers.

Left alone, the saint gave thanks to the Lord and humbly awaited the revelation of His will. Meanwhile a snake crept into the cave, slid into a jar full of wine, spat its venom into it, and went away. When the robbers returned, tormented by thirst, they drank the poisoned wine, and every one of them perished.

Chariton began his ascetic labors in that very cave, where by God’s will he had been miraculously saved. Part of the wealth the robbers had amassed he distributed to the poor and to the desert fathers, and with the rest he built a church, around which the renowned Lavra of Pharan in Palestine gradually grew up. The saint himself drew up a rule for the monastery, appointed a new abbot over the Lavra, and withdrew into the depths of the wilderness. The blessed father sought solitude, but those who desired the monastic life found him even there. Thus a new monastery, that of Jericho, was founded, followed by yet another, the so-called “Old Lavra” of Souka.

For his tireless labors the Lord granted His chosen one the gift of miraculously healing sicknesses of soul and body. The day of his repose was revealed to the saint beforehand. He wished to meet his end in the Lavra of Pharan, so he summoned all his disciples and gave them his final instructions.

Venerable Chariton departed this life around the year 350, in deep old age. His honorable body was laid to rest in the church he himself had built on the site of the robbers’ cave.