10th century
Saint John the Harvester of Calabria
The son of a captive Orthodox mother at a Muslim court in Sicily, who escaped to Calabria and became a monk.
Biography
John was born in the early tenth century in Panormus, Sicily. His mother Kalliste was an Orthodox Christian held captive as the wife of a Muslim ruler, and she secretly told him about Christ.
At fourteen his mother revealed his true origin in Calabria and urged him to go there to be baptised. He escaped his pursuers in a remarkable way, was baptised by an Orthodox bishop who gave him his own name, and became a monk at a monastery between two rivers in Calabria.