Venerable John Climacus of Sinai, Author of “the Ladder”

John came to Mount Sinai at sixteen; even the monk Daniel who wrote his Life did not know where he was from. He spent nineteen years in obedience to his elder Martyrius, then about forty years as a hermit at Thola, some five miles from the monastery church, coming to services only on feast days. In old age he was made abbot of Sinai.

At the request of John, abbot of nearby Raithu, he wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a guide to monastic life in thirty steps, from renouncing the world to faith, hope and love. It became a standard book for monks in East and West, and gave him his name, Climacus, "of the Ladder". His dates are disputed: traditionally he died c. 649, though some scholars place him earlier, c. 600.