SAINT JOHN THERISTUS

St. John Theristus

Feast day: February 24
Birth: 1049
Sicily
Death: 1129


Benedictine monk, called Theristus or "Harvester." He was of Calabrian lineage, born in Sicily.

 John's Calabrian mother had been captured by the Saracens and brought to Sicily as a slave, where John was born. He contrived to escape to Calabria while still a child, and there he became a Benedictine. Theristus means 'harvester,' a reference to a miraculous harvesting supposed to have been performed by the saint