Joannes or Joannes Climacus
104. RAITHUENSIS, or RAITHENUS, i. e. of RAITHUS or RAITHU (τοῦ Ῥαϊθοῦ), hegumenos or abbot of a monastery at Elim, or the Seventy Springs, on the western coast of the peninsula of Mount Sinai, lived in the sixth century, and was the friend of Joannes, surnamed Climacus. [CLIMACUS.]
Works
Ἐπιστολὴ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἡγουμένου τοῦ Ῥαϊθοῦ, Litterae Joannis Raithuensis
It was at the desire of Raithuensis that Climacus wrote the work Κλίμαξ, Scala Paradisi, from which he derives his name, and to which Raithuensis wrote a Commendatio and Scholia.
Editions
The Ἐπιστολὴ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἡγουμένου τοῦ Ῥαϊθοῦ, Litterae Joannis Raithuensis, addressed to Climacus, requesting him to undertake the work, and the answer of Climacus, are given by Raderus in the original Greek, with a Latin version, in his edition of the works of Climacus, fol. Paris, 1633.
This version of the Litterae of Raithuensis, and a Latin version of his Commendatio and Scholia, are given in various editions of the Bibliotheca Patrum.
The Litterae are given in vol. iii. ed. Paris, 1575.
the Litterae and Commendatio, vol. v. ed. Paris, 1589 and 1654.
the Litterae s. Epistola, Commendatio, and Scholia, in vol. vi. pt. ii. ed. Cologne, 1618; and vol. x. ed. Lyon, 1677.
Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. ix. pp. 523-524; Ittigius, De Bibliothecis Patrum.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.