St. John Lampadistis (10th c.)

John was born in the tenth century at Lampadou in Cyprus, the only son, long prayed for, of a priest named Kyriakos and his wife Anna. At eighteen he was betrothed to the daughter of a rich family, though he wished to give his whole life to God, and when he drew back her people took it for an insult and had a sorcerer poison his food. He ate little, as was his habit, and lived, but he was blinded. He forgave them and went with his servant, another John, to the monastery of St Herakleidios in the Marathasa valley, where he lived as a hermit, known for healing the possessed, until he died at twenty-two on 4 October. The monastery, across the river from Kalopanagiotis, now bears his name: his tomb is in its chapel and his skull in a silver reliquary beside it, among the painted churches of the Troodos that UNESCO listed in 1985. Feast: October 4.