John the Dwarf
c. 339 AD — c. 405 AD · Feast day: October 17
John the Dwarf left Thebes at eighteen for the desert of Scetes, where his teacher Pambo commanded him to water a dead stick daily for three years — twelve miles each way — until it miraculously bloomed into the Tree of Obedience. He became one of the most quoted Desert Fathers, instructed Arsenius the Great, and is venerated as patron saint of people with dwarfism.