BESSARION, SAINT, fourth-century anchorite. According to the
short series of apothegms attributed to Bessarion in the
alphabetical collection of the APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM, the saint
(festal date, 25 Misra) was a contemporary of JOHN OF LYCOPOLIS.
He lived, therefore, for at least part of his life, in the
second half of the fourth century, at SCETIS. He had a disciple
called Doulas, who depicted his master as a powerful
thaumaturgist who cured the possessed, walked on the water, made
seawater drinkable, and could even stop the sun in its course.
But Bessarion was also a great ascetic, capable of going forty
days without rest and praying in an upright position for weeks
at a time. He was, above all, eager for humility and judged
himself the most guilty of sinners. The last apothegm of the
series presents Bessarion as one of God's perpetual wanderers,
settling nowhere, but according to the best witnesses, it really
refers to another anchorite, one named Serapion. It is also to
the latter that should be attributed