The Monastic Fathers, martyred at Sinai and Raithu, asceticised at the monasteries and caves of Mount Sinai, where previously the Ten Commandments had been given through Moses; near to it also was the Raithu monastic wilderness (on the shores of the Red Sea). They suffered under the Saracens and under nomadic brigands from among the Arab tribes. The first massacre occurred in about the year 312. It was recorded by Ammon, an Egyptian monk, who witnessed the murder of the 40 holy fathers in Sinai. During this time the Arabs also killed 39 fathers at Raithu. The second period of the massacres occurred nearly a hundred years later, and was likewise recorded by an eyewitness who himself in the process miraculously escaped - the Monk Nilus the Faster.
The Sinai and Raithu ascetics lived a particularly strict lifestyle: they spent the whole week in their cells at prayer, on Saturday they gathered for the all-night vigil, and on Sunday they communed the Holy Mysteries. Their only food was dates and water. Many of the wilderness ascetics were glorified by wonderworking - the elders Moses, Joseph, and others. By name remembered in the service to these monastic fathers are commemorated: Isaiah, Sava, Moses and his student Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergios, Domnos, Proklos, Ipatios, Isaac, Makarios, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebios, and Elias.
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