The life of St Joannicus the Great
Drafted into the imperial army under Leo IV, he served with enough courage and good bearing to win the respect of his fellow soldiers, though he had been raised, like the court that conscripted him, to oppose the veneration of icons. It was during his years as a soldier that an elder he met turned him decisively toward Orthodoxy on that question. When his service ended he gave up everything and withdrew to Mount Olympus in Bithynia, known locally as Mysian Olympus, where he lived as a hermit for the better part of seventy years, becoming known across the region for miracles worked both through his prayers for others and, after his death, at his tomb. He reposed on November 4, 846, at the age of ninety four, having spent nearly three quarters of a century in the solitude he had first tasted as a boy watching cattle in the fields.
