So once again we have a hermit on the Calendar–this one known as John of Egypt, who lived during the 4th century. He studied under a hermit-guru for twelve years (one of the things that this teacher had John do was to water a dry stick for a year, as if it were a living plant). After the teacher died, when John was about 40 years old, he climbed up to a very high precipice and built himself a cell. There John walled himself in, leaving only a hole for “necessaries.” He was a vegan and would only eat uncooked vegetables at that.

As happens in all such cases as John’s, word spread and people climbed up the mountainside to seek John’s counsel. Monday through Friday, John would only speak to God; on weekends, he would give counsel, but only to other males. That was his inviolable rule–he would have no intercourse (of any sort) with any female.

One day, a general came to John. This general had a wife who was going blind. He begged John to heal his wife, and John told him that he could not–because he would have no interactions with women. The general went home and told his wife, who fell further into despair. The general returned and again beseeched John. So John relented–by finding a workaround! That night, he appeared to the general’s wife in her dreams and within her dreams provided her the healing touch she needed (while also giving her general instructions in future righteousness). The next morning, the woman awoke with her sight fully restored…and John did not need to leave his cell (save by a form of astral projection into her dreams).

Student, hermit, raw-diet vegan, healer, and dream-walker…John lived to be 90 years old, dying while on his knees in prayer.