It is not known where the great ascetic, the Venerable John, was born. It is assumed that he was a Syrian. Driven by love for God, at the age of seventeen he withdrew to Mount Sinai, where he was tonsured a monk.
There he lived for nineteen years under the guidance of a pious and wise elder, and after his death he settled in a desert place called Tola, also on Mount Sinai.
Here John devoted himself to constant prayer and fasting; he shed tears of compassion and contrition of his heart. Although he loved the solitary and silent life with all his soul, he did not refuse to instruct those who came to him for advice, and even took a disciple named Moses with him. An incident is told about Moses, which proves how God protects His faithful servants.
Once Moses was at work far from his cell, and the venerable John was praying at home. After praying, he dozed off and immediately heard someone speaking to him: "You are sleeping peacefully, but your disciple is in danger!" John woke up, but he did not know where to find Moses and began to pray for him. In the evening, Moses returned and John asked him if something bad had happened to him. "I was almost crushed when a large stone fell" Moses replied. – Tired from work and the scorching sun, I lay down to rest in the shade by an overhanging rock. I was immediately awakened by your voice calling me. I quickly got up, and at the same time the rock fell." John tearfully thanked the Lord, who had informed him of the disciple's danger and heard his prayer.
After many years spent in a deserted place, the Venerable John, at the request of the Sinai monks, agreed to be the abbot of their monastery. He led the brothers and instructed them in spiritual life and monastic asceticism.
His great spiritual experience and deep wisdom are revealed in his wonderful book "Ladder to Paradise", in which he instructs Christians how to direct their thoughts to God and by what spiritual "ladder", i.e. Ladder of virtue, to achieve Christian perfection. From this book he is called "The Ladder". He also wrote the work "Book to the Shepherd".
St. John of the Ladder died in 603.