He was born in one of the villages of Bithynia around the year 1020 AD. He studied and learned, by the grace of God, to despise passing women and seek out those who remain. His family wanted to force him to marry, but he refused. He fled to Mount Olympus. There he became a disciple of an old man known for his wisdom and divine knowledge. He put on the angelic robe and was called Christodoulos. He imitated his teacher in everything. He considered him a living icon of Christ. His body withered with fasting and he spent long nights in prayer.
The Sheikh died three years after his arrival. He made a pilgrimage to Rome and then to the Holy Land, where he lived as a hermit in the barren deserts of Palestine. He joined a monastery and became an example to be followed. He moved to Asia Minor with some monks after the specter of an imminent Turkish invasion of the sultans loomed. He took refuge in the monastic Mount Latrus. He lived on nothing but barley bread and water, except on major feasts. He founded a monastery on the island of Kos. People flocked to him more and he moved to the island of Patmos after Emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118 AD) granted it to him, exempting him from taxes and ordering that he and his monks should receive the wheat they needed annually from the treasury. He did not charge him with anything except praying for him and for the empire.
Christodoulos founded a monastery in Patmos and built a church in the name of St. John the Theologian. He organized his monastic life on St. Basil the Great and St. Sava the Holy. Before the walls of the monastery were completed, while Emperor Alexius turned his attention to the west to confront the Norman barbarians, the Turks moved again and threatened the shores of Asia Minor and the islands. Christodoulos and his monks were forced to move to Oripos, where he founded a temporary monastery. Sensing his death was approaching, he called his closest disciple, Sava, and appointed him to lead the monks after him, giving him his instructions and ordering him to return to Patmos as soon as possible. In the second week of Lent in the year 1093, he called his disciples to him, blessed them, and dictated to them his covenant to take his body with them when they returned to Patmos. He then died in peace on March 16 of that year. The Monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos became one of the most prominent monastic centers in Orthodoxy and from it came many bishops and patriarchs.
Our Orthodox Church celebrates it on 3/16 Eastern, 3/29 Western
Troparion in Tone 8 and Tone 4
For the barren wilderness, with the streams of your tears you fed, and with the sighs from the depths you bore fruit with your labors a hundredfold, so you became a star for the inhabited world, shining with wonders, O our righteous father Christodoulos, so intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
