Saint Julian and Didymus the Blind

Life

Saint Julian, called the Desert-Dweller, was a Persian and a peasant without schooling, but because of the purity of his heart he was a vessel of the grace of the Holy Spirit. He practiced asceticism near the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. He had the gift of clairvoyance. At the very moment when Julian the Apostate perished, Saint Julian perceived it in spirit and announced it to his disciples. His contemporary, Saint Didymus the Blind in Alexandria, likewise foresaw in spirit the death of Julian the Apostate; he was at prayer one night, when a voice came to him from heaven: "Today Emperor Julian has perished; inform Patriarch Athanasius of this." Saint Anthony the Great greatly esteemed this wondrous blind man Didymus, who had a clairvoyant spirit, and would visit him whenever he came from the desert to Alexandria, and together with him would pray to God. Both Saint Julian and Saint Didymus, wondrous servants of God, reposed in the Lord after the year 362.