John Moschus

John Moschus (Greek: Ιωάννης Μόσχος, c. 550 – 619; name from the Ancient Greek: ὁ τοῦ Μόσχου o tou Moschou "son of Moschos", was a Byzantine monk and ascetical writer.

Biography

He was born about 550 probably at Damascus. He was given the epithet "ὁ ἐγκρατής" ("The Abstemious"). He lived successively with the monks at the monastery of St. Theodosius (now Deir Dosi) southeast of Jerusalem, among the hermits in the Jordan Valley, and in the New Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified near Teqoa, east of Bethlehem.

About the year 578 he went to Egypt with Sophronius (afterwards Patriarch of Jerusalem) and came as far as the Great Oasis of the Libyan Desert. After 583 he came to Mount Sinai and spent about ten years in the Lavra of Aeliatae; he then visited the monasteries, near Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. In 604 he went to Antioch but returned to Egypt in 607. Later he came to Cyprus and in 614-615 to Rome where he died in 619.

On his deathbed he requested Sophronius to bury him, if possible, on Mt. Sinai or else at Greek Orthodox Church of St.Theodosius near Jerusalem. Mt. Sinai being then invaded by the Saracens, Sophronius buried him in St. Theodusius.