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Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

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June 23 · Hermit

St. Ivan

St. Ivan

Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Traditional feast

June 23
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Hermit

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897–98) · original text below · little is known

(The surviving account on this page begins partway through the story.)

Duke Borzivoi, out hunting, met the old hermit Ivan, who lived in a narrow cave and had been fed by the milk of the deer the duke had just killed. The duke persuaded him to come to his castle, but the bustle and luxury wearied him, and he fled back to the woods that night.

Some country people, taking him for a wild man, stoned him and cut his head. He crawled under the trees to lie down. The chaplain of Ludmila, the duke's devout wife, found him dying, gave him the last sacraments, and buried him under the oak leaves.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 173 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

“ And where dost thou live?” “In a narrow cave.” " And what is thy food ?” “ That deer thou hast killed fed me with her milk.” Borzivoi was filled with regret and he urged the old man to mount his horse and come to the castle. The hermit reluctantly complied. In the Lives oj the Saints.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Make time for silence. Solitude and withdrawal to pray shape this life.

Learn from the kind of life it was. Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Read more

The full original · 173 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Bohemian Kalendar. Authority: — A life by Ralbintis, founded on the Lections of the Prague Breviary ] Borzivoi, duke of Bohemia, was hunting in the forest one day, when he started a doe, which the dogs pursued. The duke galloped after them, and the dogs brought the doe down near a rock and fountain, in the deepest solitude of the forest He leaped from his horse and speared the doe. To his surprise he saw an old man approach with long snowy beard, in a threadbare garb His attendants entreated the duke to withdraw, as this was a wood-spirit, but Borzivoi called to the old man, and asked his name. “ I am called Ivan, and I come from Dalmatia,” said the apparition; “ I have served God in solitude for forty-two years.”

“ And where dost thou live?” “In a narrow cave.” " And what is thy food ?” “ That deer thou hast killed fed me with her milk.” Borzivoi was filled with regret and he urged the old man to mount his horse and come to the castle. The hermit reluctantly complied. In the Lives oj the Saints.

[June a*. palace of the duke all was strange to him, — the bustle, the splendour, the delicate meats. He was weary of it all, almost as soon as he was there, and in the night he fled away to seek out his dear woodland solitudes. But some rustics, thinking him a wild man, pelted him with stones, and cut open his head; then he crawled under the shade of the green trees, and lay down, faint and weary. And presently the chaplain of Ludmila, the duke’s saintly wife, came in quest of him, and found the old man dying. So he ministered to him the last sacraments, and buried him under the oak leaves.

Feast days

Feast: June 23

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Ivan's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on June 23
St. Felix

St. Felix

June 23 · Priest, Martyr
A

St. Agrippina

June 23 · Virgin, Martyr
Z

Sts. Zeno and Zenas

June 23 · Martyrs
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.