Venerable Xenophon with his wife Mary, and their sons Arcadius and John of Constantinople

Xenophon was a senator of Constantinople, living with his wife Mary a quiet Christian life, probably in the 5th or 6th century. They sent their two sons, John and Arcadius, to study in Berytus in Phoenicia, famous for its schools. On the voyage the ship was wrecked; the brothers, each clinging to a plank, were washed ashore in different places, and each believed the other had drowned. Each of them became a monk in Palestine.

Two years later the parents learned what had happened and went to Jerusalem to pray. According to their Life, there they found first one son and then the other, now monks, and the brothers met again. Xenophon and Mary then gave away their wealth and themselves became monks, he in a monastery near Jerusalem and she in a women's community.