St. Chariton the Confessor

Chariton was a young Christian of Iconium in Lycaonia in the late third century, arrested during the persecution of Aurelian (270–275) and subjected to tortures that he survived against expectation — beaten, racked, his body torn, but kept alive by the prayers of his fellow Christians. When the persecution subsided he was released, but his health was broken and he could not return to ordinary life. Following an inner call, he set out for the Holy Land.

In the wilderness of Judea beyond Jericho he came upon a cave at the place called Pharan and settled there. Other Christians who had heard of his confession and his withdrawal began to come to him for counsel, and out of this informal gathering grew the first lavra of Palestinian monasticism — the Pharan Lavra, a community of solitaries each in his own cell coming together only for the Liturgy on the Lord's Day. Chariton afterwards founded two more such communities — at Douka above Jericho and at Souka near Bethlehem — establishing the pattern of Palestinian monastic life that Euthymius, Sabbas, and the later Palestinian fathers would inherit and develop.

He reposed at extreme old age in the late fourth century at his last foundation. His feast is kept on September 28.