John Climacus

John Climacus (also called John of the Ladder or John of Sinai) was a Byzantine monk and ascetic writer who spent virtually his entire adult life on Mount Sinai, first as a disciple under the elder Martyrius, then as a hermit for some forty years near a place called Thola, and finally as hegumen (abbot) of the Sinai monastic community for approximately four years before resigning and returning to his hermitage shortly before his death. He is best known as the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Klimax tou Paradeisou), a thirty-step manual of monastic and spiritual progress that has been read aloud in Orthodox monasteries every Great Lent for nearly fourteen centuries, ranking in practical influence second only to the Psalter in the Christian East. The work was composed at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery on the shores of the Red Sea, and guides the reader from renunciation of the world through the conquest of the passions to the summit of love, faith, and hope. A shorter companion piece, To the Pastor (Liber ad Pastorem), addressed the duties of a spiritual father. His surname "Climacus" derives from the Greek title of his masterwork. His dates and birthplace are disputed; see notes.