The Monk Ipatios, Hegumen of Ruthianeia,

Commemorated on March 31

The Monk Ipatios, Hegumen of Ruthianeia, was born in Phrygia (Asia Minor) into the family of a lawyer and he received a fine education. Once, when he was eighteen years old, his father punished him, after which the youth left home and went to Thrace (Balkans). There for a certain while he herded cattle, and then he settled with a presbyter, who taught him about the singing of psalms. Soon the chosen one of God took vows in one of the monasteries. Struggling against temptations of the flesh, the holy ascetic spent fifty days in the strictest of fasts, and then, with the blessing of the head of the monastery, at evening time in the presence of the brethren he drank wine with bread and was healed of his passions. In search of a new place for ascetic deeds, the monk Ipatios settled with two other monks at the neglected Ruthianeia monastery nearby Chalcedon (Asia Minor). The monastery was rebuilt and soon many monks gathered about the holy ascetic, and the monastery again began to flourish spiritually. At age forty the monk Ipatios was chosen hegumen and he guided the monastery during the span of forty years. Many monks, copying their guide, attained deep spiritual perfection. For his strict ascetic life and self-denying love towards others, Saint Ipatios was granted by the Lord gifts of wonderworking and healing. Through his holy prayers bread was multiplied at the monastery and there were healed many afflicted with demons, and the blind, the withered and the hemorrhaging, having come to the monastery. The monk Ipatios reposed in about the year 446, at eighty years of age. On the eve of his death he predicted of coming misfortunes: a devastating hailstorm, an earthquake, and the onslaught of Attila the Hun upon Thrace.