John, Heraclemon, Andrew and Theophilus of Egypt

These four saints lived in Egypt in the fourth century and are remembered together from the account preserved in the Life of Onuphrius the Great. After Abba Paphnutius had buried the great hermit Onuphrius, he continued his journey through the wilderness and came upon an oasis remarkable for its beauty and its abundance of fruit-bearing trees. From out of the desert four youths came to him; and when he had greeted them, they told him their story.

In their childhood, they said, they had lived in the city of Oxyrhynchus in the Upper Thebaid, where they had studied together, and had been kindled with a single desire — to give their lives wholly to God. So they left the city together and travelled for several days into the desert, until they were met by a man radiant with heavenly glory, who led them to an aged hermit. With that elder they settled; but after a year he reposed, and the four young men remained alone. "We have lived here six years now," they told Paphnutius; "our elder dwelt with us one year and then died, and since then we live here by ourselves, eating the fruit of the trees and drinking from the spring." Through the week each of them struggled apart in solitude; but on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day they would gather at the oasis and pray together, and on those days an angel of God appeared and communed them with the Holy Mysteries. They gave Paphnutius their names — John, Andrew, Heraclemon and Theophilus.

For the sake of their guest they did not go out that week into the desert but kept the whole week together in prayer; and on the following Saturday and Sunday Paphnutius too was granted to receive the Holy Gifts from the hands of the angel, and to hear the words: "Receive the imperishable Food, unending bliss and life eternal — the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God." Emboldened, Paphnutius asked the angel whether he might remain in the desert to the end of his days, but was told that God had appointed him another path: he must return to Egypt and make known to the Christians the manner of life of the desert-dwellers. Bidding the four young men farewell, Paphnutius came after a three days' journey to the edge of the wilderness, where he found a small monastic settlement whose brethren received him with love. To them he related all that he had learned of the holy fathers he had met; and they wrote down a full account of his words and laid it up in the church, that all who wished might read it. So it is that the memory of these hidden saints, who would otherwise have been known to God alone, has come down to the whole Church.