Venerable Dorotheus of Thebes

Dorotheus of Thebes was a hermit of the Egyptian desert, remembered as a severe ascetic of the Thebaid who labored for sixty years in the desert of Skete, on the western side of the River Nile. He is to be distinguished from the better-known Abba Dorotheus of Gaza, a Palestinian monastic teacher of a later generation.

Almost everything known of him is preserved in the Lausiac History of Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis, who in his youth was sent to live with Dorotheus in order to subdue his passions. Palladius describes him as a Theban ascetic who was spending the sixtieth year in his cave, and records his manner of life in close detail as that of an eyewitness disciple.

By Palladius's account, Dorotheus spent the burning daytime hours collecting stones in the desert by the sea and building cells with them, which he then gave over to other hermits who could not build for themselves. By night he wove ropes of palm leaves to provide for his own food. His diet was extremely sparing, and he died peacefully at an advanced age. In the synaxarion used by this database his memory is kept on June 5.