The Monk Apollonios

Commemorated on March 31

The Monk Apollonios, when he was a fifteen year old youth, withdrew into the inner Thebaid wilderness (Lower Egypt), where he spent forty years at monastic exploits. On a suggestion from above he went across to a nearby wilderness and near Hermopolis he founded a monastery, at which gradually gathered about five hundred monks. Saint Apollonios was strict at fasting, on Sundays only did he partake of cooked food, and on the remaining days he ate only wild plants.
All the monks also followed the example of the monk Apollonios, pursuing asceticism at the monastery together with their preceptor. The holy ascetic died in the IV Century.