04 Works, Today, April 4th, is Saints Plato’s day, With Footnotes — #92
1 min readApr 4, 2020
Saint Plato of Sakkoudion’s wealthy parents died of disease before he was 13. Excellent student. Pious from youth, he turned away from the world of the royal court, freed his slaves, sold his estates, gave the money to his sisters and the poor, and at age 24 he moved to the monastery at Symbolean on Mount Olympus, though he never took holy orders and remained a layman. He spent his days in prayer, menial labour, and copying holy books.
In 775 Plato made a journey to Constantinople on business, and managed to inspire many of the citizens of all stations to better, more pious lives. The patriarch Paul tried to make him bishop of Nicomedia, but Plato retreated to his monastery…