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David the Dendrite
patron saint of Thessaloniki
SaintFull write-upByzantine EmpirePre-congregation
Feast: 26 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
450
Died
535
Beatified
—
not needed: before formal processes
Canonised
By tradition
recognised before formal processes began
Who they were
At Thessalonica in Greece, Saint David, hermit, who spent about eighty years shut in a small cell outside the walls of the city.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The Roman Martyrology remembers him on 26 June as a hermit who spent about eighty years in a small cell outside the walls of Thessalonica.
Sources
- Roman Martyrology, 26 June (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno)
- Wikidata Q1748742 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — David the Dendrite (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.