Saint Dalmat lived during the reign of Theodosius the Great, served in the army, and was respected by the emperor. Despising worldly life, he left his family and, taking his son Faustus with him, went to Saint Isaac, where they were tonsured into monastic life and led a God-pleasing existence. Saint Isaac, sensing the approach of death, appointed Dalmat as the abbot of the monastery, which later bore his name. Dalmat was ordained a priest by Patriarch Atticus and lived a life full of abstinence, including a forty-day fast without food. He fought against the heretics, the Nestorians, and became the archimandrite of the Dalmatian monastery, receiving the love of the emperor and the holy fathers. Saint Dalmat departed to eternity in deep old age. His son Faustus was also a great ascetic and, adhering to monastic vows, moved to the eternal abodes.
