Venerable Chariton the Confessor, Abbot of Palestine

Chariton was a Christian of Iconium in Lycaonia. During the persecution of Emperor Aurelian (270–275) he was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for refusing to sacrifice; after Aurelian was killed, he was freed. Afterwards he went to the Holy Land.

According to his Life, robbers captured him on the road to Jerusalem and held him in a cave, which he later turned into a monastery. Chariton founded three monastic settlements in the Judean desert, at Pharan, Douka near Jericho and Souka near Tekoa; they are regarded as among the first lavras, where hermits lived in separate cells around a common church. He died c. 350, after naming a successor, and was buried at Pharan.