Fathers Slain at Sinai and Raithu

The Holy Fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu were desert ascetics of the monastic settlements of Mount Sinai and of Raithu, near the Red Sea coast of the Sinai peninsula, who were massacred by raiders and are therefore honored as monk-martyrs. They are commemorated together on January 14.

By the accounts the Church remembers two such slaughters. In the fourth century, forty Fathers were killed at Mount Sinai and thirty-nine were slain at Raithu on the same day. In the fifth century a further massacre of the Fathers at Raithu took place, which was recorded by Saint Theodulus, the son of Saint Nilus of Sinai.

Among those remembered with them is Saint Joseph Analytinus of Raithu, described as a strict ascetic who foretold the time of his death to his disciple Gelasius. The Fathers are venerated as having received the crown of martyrdom in the midst of their solitary and ascetic life.