His early life is unknown other than he was a monk of the Monastery of St. Seridus who arrived in Alexandria, Egypt in the early seventh century when St. John the Merciful was Patriarch of Alexandria. When he was sixty years old he began a extraordinary task among the prostitutes of Alexandria. After recording from memory the names of these prostitutes, he began to pray for their redemption and worked to earn twelve copper coins each day. Each night he would buy a single bean that he ate and the remaining coins he would give to one of the harlots, whom he visited at night, begging her to take the money and to not sin with anyone that night. The Elder would then stay in her room while she slept, praying and reading the Psalms, before leaving quietly in the morning.