Venerable John the Calybite (Hut-Dweller)

John was the youngest son of Eutropius, a wealthy official in Constantinople in the reign of Leo I, in the 5th century. As a boy he asked his parents for a Gospel book, and they had one copied and bound in gold and jewels. Soon afterwards he secretly left home with it and became a monk among the Acoemetae, the "sleepless" monks.

After six years he came back to Constantinople in rags and, unrecognized, lived in a little hut by his parents' gate, fed with scraps from their kitchen; from this hut he is called the "Hut-Dweller". After three years, feeling death near, he sent for his mother and gave her the Gospel. When his parents recognized the book, he told them he was their son, and died soon after. He asked to be buried in his rags under the hut.