Saint Chariton

Saint Chariton the Confessor was a Christian ascetic and monastic founder of the third and fourth centuries, counted among the originators of organized monasticism in the Holy Land. His traditional biography, the Vita Charitonis, written in Greek probably in the fifth or sixth century, states that he was a native of Iconium in Lycaonia, in Asia Minor. During a persecution of Christians commonly identified with the reign of the emperor Aurelian (270–275), Chariton was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned for his faith. Because he suffered for Christ yet was not put to death, later tradition styled him a Confessor. After the emperor’s death he was released.

Upon his release Chariton resolved to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the holy places of Palestine. While traveling through the wilderness near Jericho he was captured by robbers and confined in their cave. According to the hagiographical narrative, his captors died after drinking wine into which venom from a snake had fallen, and Chariton, finding himself at liberty, gave their treasure to the poor. He remained in the cave, turning it into an oratory, and thus established the Lavra of Pharan (Faran), near the spring of Ein Fara in the Judaean desert northeast of Jerusalem. This community is generally regarded as the first lavra in Palestine, a form of monastic settlement in which hermits occupied separate cells but gathered periodically for liturgical worship.

In subsequent years Chariton founded two further lavras. The Lavra of Douka was planted on the steep mountain west of Jericho that Christian tradition associates with the Temptation of Christ. The third house, the Souka Lavra or Old Lavra of Saint Chariton, arose in the gorge now called Wadi Khureitun, near ancient Tekoa south of Bethlehem; the wadi itself preserves his name. The Vita describes him as moving from one site to another in order to escape the crowds of disciples and visitors attracted by his reputation for holiness, a motif familiar in the lives of the desert fathers. At these settlements he is credited with shaping the classic lavra discipline: monks spent weekdays in solitude, engaged in prayer and handicrafts, and assembled on Saturday and Sunday for the Eucharist and a common meal. An early monastic rule is attributed to him, though any surviving text associated with his name is of uncertain date.

Tradition holds that Chariton spent his last years in stricter seclusion and died at an advanced age, around the year 350. He was buried at the Lavra of Pharan, the first of his foundations. The monasteries he established continued as important centers of Palestinian monasticism into the Byzantine period and are mentioned by later authors including Cyril of Scythopolis and John Moschus. Chariton is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, and he is listed in the Roman Martyrology. His principal feast is kept on 28 September. Through the lavra model he helped to define, his influence on the shape of desert monasticism in the Holy Land was lasting, even though many details of his life remain known only through later hagiography rather than contemporary documents.