This wonderful and scrumptious John came from the village of Lampadou or Lampadistos which was near the present villages of Mitsero and Galata (Cyprus). His father was a priest and was named Kyriakos and his mother was named Anna. Both of his parents were very devout Christians. They did not have any other children and they made sure that their only child would learn the holy Scriptures and have a Christian education.
When he came of age, his parents married him with a young girl who had rich parents. But John preferring purity and total dedication to God, avoided performing his conjugal duties. His father- in- law, who was a treacherous and envious man, invited a Sorcerer who made a poison by the art of magic, and put it in the dish with the fish to be eaten by John. And so he was blinded. John Lampadistis endured with patience and without complaint this terrible ordeal. He forgave those who blinded him, consolidated his parents, and devoted his life to God. (In another source Saint John was engaged and not married).
John Lampadistis who was as beautiful as an angel and who was pure in soul and body, completed his teenage years and became an adult at age 18, bearing the crown of thorns created by the evil doings of people and the deprivation of sight from his eyes. But this did not bother him. He therefore took his faithful servant as a guide, who was also named John, and departed from Lampadou and came to the valley of Marathasa and founded a hermitage at the Monastery of Saint Heracledius. Here, it should be noted that Saint Heracledius came from the same village as John, the village of Lampadou.
The saintly and pure life of the young ascetic shone in that area giving spiritual light to all around him. John Lampadistis submitted himself to strict ascetic exercise. He lived an angelic life. He lived praying unceasingly, teaching the word of God and doing God’s will. He lived with fasting, vigil, prayer, pleas to God, and good deeds. Teaching everyone through his saintly and unblemished life, that they can all live in Christ, if they wished as well. He fasted continuously and only ate every three or four days.
Living this way, he was claimed by God to make miracles. Saint John Lampadistis passed away at the early age of 22 years old. Three days before he passed away, he saw three vultures flying over him, and he realized then that the time to leave this world had come. He prayed and surrendered his soul to God. His holy body was burried by his own father, with honours and in luxury.
Saint John Lampadistis lived during the tenth century. Leontios Machairas says the following about the Saint: “And the great John Lampadistis, in the Marathasa (region) who removes demons. He was a deacon at the parish of Marathasa”.
The memory of Saint John Lampadistis is celebrated on October 4.
