Life of St John of the Ladder

[Steve Moraugh]

Hello everyone,

Since it's the Sunday of St. John of the Ladder, I wondered if anyone here might know where I can find a "life" of St. John. I have a copy of the Ladder, but I would like to read some information on his own life. Are there any lives online?

Thank you very much.

Steve Moraugh

[Elisabeth]

Hi Steve,

There is some good information about Saint John of the Ladder on this web site at www.monachos.net/patristics/klimakos_repentance_shtml (http://www.monachos.net/patristics/klimakos_repentance_shtml). Other sites with information are www.fr-d-serfes.org/orthodox/index.htm (http://www.fr-d-serfes.org/orthodox/index.htm) (under Greek Orthodox Spirituality) and also in the Eternal World Television Network at www.ewtn.com (http://www.ewtn.com)

If you have the Classics of Western Spirituality edition of ‘The Ladder’ published by the Paulist Press, there is a very good introduction by Bishop Kallistos, which contains information about Saint John Klimakos life.

As mentioned in the Monochos web page, a good commentary is ‘Ascent to Heaven’ by Father John Chryssavgis. This was originally his Oxford PhD dissertation which he revised for publication.

I was fortunate enough to visit the cave hermitage of Saint John Klimakos in Sinai some years ago. I took some photographs, but as yet don’t have them in digital format for the web. But let me know if you would like to see them, or know more.

As you might know, it is tradition that ‘The Ladder of Divine Ascent’ is read in monasteries during Lent, and I think it’s a good tradition for us lay folk too!

God Bless

Elisabeth

[M.C. Steenberg]

Just to make things more direct, here is a link to the text on St John's latter on Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes' website, as indicated by Elisabeth in her last post:

http://www.fr-d-serfes.org/orthodox/divine.htm

Thanks for the pointer, Elisabeth. If you ever have the opportunity to scan those images of St John's hermitage, I would be happy to make them available online, as I am sure many would be interested in seeing them. Do let me know if you are able, or might like to have me scan them for you.

INXC, Matthew