c. 717/718 – c. 783/784
An ascetic of Lesbos who, called by a vision of Saint Anthony, lived in a cave on Mount Ida in Asia Minor; eldest of the three brother-confessors David, Symeon, and George of Mytilene who upheld the holy icons.
Our Venerable Father David the Monk of Lesbos
David the Monk of Lesbos was a ninth-century ascetic and the eldest of three brothers — David, Symeon, and George of Mytilene — venerated as confessors who upheld the veneration of the holy icons. Born around 717 or 718 in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, he was the eldest of seven children of Adrianos and Konstanto.
At the age of sixteen he received a vision of Saint Anthony the Great directing him to Mount Ida in Troas in Asia Minor, where he lived as an ascetic in a cave for roughly thirty years, subsisting on wild greens. He was later ordained deacon and presbyter and built a church and a monastery near his cave.
David died at about the age of sixty-six, around 783 or 784, before the second period of iconoclast persecution. The three brothers are jointly commemorated on February 1.
According to his life, David was moved at the age of sixteen by a vision of Saint Anthony the Great, who directed him to travel to Mount Ida in the region of Troas in Asia Minor. There he took up the ascetic life, dwelling in a cave and subsisting on wild greens for approximately thirty years.
Around 762 he was ordained deacon and then presbyter by the Bishop of Gargara. He built a church dedicated to Saints Kirikos and Ioulitta together with a monastery near his cave.
David died at about the age of sixty-six, placing his repose around 783 or 784. Before his death he sent word to his youngest brother Symeon, calling him to return to Mytilene.
The location of his relics is unknown, and he may have been buried somewhere other than Lesbos. His passing preceded the second iconoclast persecution (813–842) under the emperors Leo the Armenian and Theophilos.
David was the eldest of three brothers venerated together as saints, alongside a nun sister named Hilaria. His brother George was born in 763 and, after the restoration of icon veneration, was consecrated Archbishop of Mytilene in 843.
His brother Symeon, born in 765 or 766, was tonsured a monk at twenty-two and ordained priest at twenty-eight. In emulation of Saint Symeon the Stylite, he lived upon a pillar near the church of the Panagia in Mytilene, practicing extraordinary asceticism and wearing chains. During the second iconoclasm under Emperor Theophilos, Symeon received one hundred and fifty lashes and was exiled to the island of Afousia. After the Empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons in 842, Symeon died around 844.
The three brothers — David, Symeon, and George — share the feast of February 1.
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