Venerable Dios, Abbot of Antioch

Dius was born in Antioch in Syria to a Christian family and from his youth lived as an ascetic. According to his Life, a vision told him twice to go to Constantinople, and he went to a deserted place outside the city, once a pagan burial ground, where he built a hut. To learn whether he should stay, he planted his dry staff in the ground, and the Life says it took root and grew into a great oak that stood for centuries.

The emperor Theodosius II visited him and built a church and monastery, and the patriarch Atticus persuaded him to be ordained priest. Dius became the abbot, helped travellers and the poor, and died c. 430. He asked to be buried in his monastery, and the emperor and patriarch kept to his wish.