St. Dorotheos of Gaza

A well-educated young man who entered the monastery of Abba Seridos near Gaza in the sixth century under the guidance of the two great elders Barsanuphius and John, whose letters to him survive, and who later founded a monastery of his own. His Discourses to his monks are the most practical book of the ascetic tradition and have been read aloud in monasteries for fourteen hundred years. The most famous page in them draws a circle with God at the centre and people on the lines running in toward Him: the nearer they come to God, the nearer they come to one another, and the nearer to one another, the nearer to God. Feast: August 13.