We often like to think of people like St. Mary of Egypt as someone who, though evidently she had a good family upbringing and was fairly well-to-do, gave up everything and went into the desert for so many, many years. But what if someone had even greater things to lose? Well, on March 10 we celebrate the memory of our holy mother among the saints, Anastasia the Patrician of Constantinople.

Now, Anastasia lived during the reign of Emperor Justinian and Theodora in the mid-500s. Usually someone acquired the title of patrician, especially a woman, because of being a widow, having lost her husband somehow, and the husband’s title passed down to her. But in Anastasia’s case, as one who had been brought up in the fear of the Lord and loved him greatly, she was given this title because of her great almsgiving and the things that she did for the people of Constantinople. She was admired by everyone, including the emperor, and did much good in her own small way in the realm in which she lived.

However, the devil, as he is wont to do, saw an opening in the case of the Empress Theodora, and put the spirit of envy into Theodora’s heart. This greatly grieved Anastasia, because she loved both the emperor and the empress, but yet the Empress Theodora, despite all that she had and all the things that she actually did for the people of Constantinople, she was very much jealous of Anastasia. Anastasia, on realizing this, decided that, for the sake of all, for the sake of removing the envy from Theodora’s heart, that she would leave Constantinople forever. This she did, deciding to dedicate her years to the service of the Lord in prayer and in fasting and in great ascetic efforts in the desert.

She went to the outskirts of Alexandria, about five miles out, and contacted Daniel of Sketis, who would later be known as St. Daniel of Sketis, and she asked him what to do. She was quite fearful about what was going on. So what Daniel did was to say, “Look, I’m going to give you a rule, and you follow this rule for the rest of your life.” Now about that time the Emperor Justinian lost his wife Theodora at the age of 40, and he remembered Anastasia and all of the wonderful things that she had done. So he sent people out all over the empire, including even the patriarch of Alexandria, to search for her, to bring her back to Constantinople.

Anastasia was distraught at this, so again she asked St. Daniel what to do, and St. Daniel said that he would be willing to help her. He clothed her in monastic garb and gave her the name instead, of Anastasios the Monk, so she would live as though she were a man, yet she lived alone. She was sent about 28 miles away into a cave, and would live there and be delivered water by a servant of St. Daniel who also would bring her other provisions and food from time to time.

For a long, long time she lived—for 28 years—in that place, in great ascetical effort. As her hagiography says, “Who can even begin to describe the trials and tribulations that she went through and her amazing closeness to God in that time!”

As her time was finally drawing near, she sent word to the monk who was bringing her provisions to tell St. Daniel that she was not going to live very much longer. So St. Daniel and the monk both gathered together and went to the cave where St. Anastasios was living, and she was at that point still alive. They both blessed each other and gave each other many, many intimations of grace for the Lord, and then finally Anastasios, who was now revealed as Anastasia upon her death, reposed in the Lord with a face of brightness, and as it is said, seeing angels to gather her together. St. Daniel and his servant and cell-mate then decided on that day they would dispense from their fasting in celebration of this great woman’s death, who went on to the Lord.

It’s an amazing story, because we don’t too often hear of those in very, very high places giving everything up to go and live in a place of absolute harshness, of hardness, of necessity, yet loving the Lord so much that this is all that they feel that they can do. Let us hope that the spirit of St. Anastasia—Anastasia, Anastasios, however we want to call her—may remain for us in our own, even in small ways, renunciation of the things of the world in order to draw near to our Lord Jesus Christ.