Venerable Martyr Dometius

Life

Born in Persia as a pagan, in the time of Emperor Constantine. As a young man he became acquainted with the Faith of Christ, abandoned paganism and was baptized. So greatly did he come to love the true faith that he left all worldly things and was tonsured a monk in a monastery near the city of Nisibis. He lived in the brotherhood for some time, then withdrew into silence to a certain archimandrite Nurvel, of whom it is said that for sixty years he ate nothing cooked. The elder Nurvel ordained him a deacon, and when he wished to compel him to the rank of priest as well, Dometius fled to a desert mountain and settled in a cave. He attained such perfection through fasting, prayer, vigil, and meditation on God, that he healed the sick. When Julian the Apostate came to those regions, he heard of Dometius and sent men who walled him up alive in the cave together with his two disciples. Thus this saint of God ended his life in 363 and departed to the Kingdom of God.

From the Hymn of Praise

The pride of monks, the glory of monks,The head of monks, Or, the most wise abba,With great labor, with many a sigh,He attained the perfection of a true monk.