Saint John Climacus (579 – 649), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th-7th-century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. There is almost no information about John’s life. Of John’s literary output we know only of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, composed in the early seventh century at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea, and a shorter work To the Pastor, most likely a sort of appendix to the Ladder.

Quotations by Saint John Climacus…