Almost no information has been preserved about the origin of John Climacus. There is a tradition that John Climacus was born around 570 and was the son of Saints Xenophon and Maria, whose memory is celebrated by the Church on January 26. At the age of sixteen, John came to the Sinai Monastery. The mentor and guide of the venerable one was Abba Martyrius. Four years later, John Climacus received the monastic tonsure. One of those present at this event, Abba Stratigius, predicted that he would become a great luminary of the Church of Christ. For 19 years John Climacus labored in obedience to his spiritual father. After the death of Abba Martyrius, the venerable John chose the eremitic life, retiring to a desert place called Tholas, where he spent 40 years in silence, fasting, prayer, and penitential tears. It is not by chance that in the "Ladder" the venerable John speaks so about the tears of repentance: "As fire consumes and destroys brushwood, so a pure tear washes away all impurities, external and internal."

The venerable John Climacus had a disciple, the monk Moses. Once the teacher ordered his disciple to carry earth to the garden for the beds. While fulfilling the obedience, the monk Moses, because of the intense summer heat, lay down to rest in the shade of a large cliff. At that time, the venerable John Climacus was in his cell resting after the labor of prayer. Suddenly a man of venerable appearance appeared to him and, awakening the holy ascetic, said with reproach: "Why are you, John, resting peacefully here, while Moses is in danger?" The venerable John Climacus immediately awoke and began to pray for his disciple. When his disciple returned in the evening, John asked if anything bad had happened to him. The monk replied: "No, but I was in great danger. I was almost crushed by a large piece of rock that broke off from the cliff under which I fell asleep at noon. Fortunately, it seemed to me in a dream that you were calling me; I jumped up and ran away, and at that moment with a crash a huge stone fell on the very place from which I fled…"

Endowed with a high penetrating mind, enlightened by deep spiritual experience, the venerable John Climacus lovingly instructed all who came to him. Once some came to him, who out of envy reproached him for verbosity, which they explained by vainglory. The venerable John imposed silence on himself so as not to give occasion for condemnation, and remained silent for a year. The envious ones realized their error and themselves turned to the ascetic with a request not to deprive them of the spiritual benefit of conversation.

Concealing his exploits from people, the venerable John Climacus sometimes secluded himself in a cave, but the fame of his holiness spread far beyond the place of his struggles, and visitors of all ranks and conditions constantly came to him, thirsting to hear a word of edification and salvation. At the age of 75, after forty years of asceticism in solitude, the venerable one was elected abbot of the Sinai monastery. For about four years John Climacus governed the holy monastery of Sinai.

Knowing of the wisdom and spiritual gifts of the venerable John Climacus, the abbot of Raithu, on behalf of all the monks of his monastery, asked him to write for them "a true guide for those who follow unswervingly, and as it were a ladder established, which raises those who desire to the Heavenly gates…" The venerable one, distinguished by a humble opinion of himself, was at first embarrassed, but then out of obedience proceeded to fulfill the request of the Raithu monks. He called his work exactly that — "The Ladder," explaining the title as follows: "I have built a ladder of ascent… from the earthly to the holy… in the image of the thirty years of the Lord's maturity, symbolically I have built a ladder of 30 degrees, by which, having attained the Lord's age, we shall be found righteous and safe from falling." The purpose of this work is to teach that the attainment of salvation requires from a person no easy self-denial and intensified struggles. The "Ladder" presupposes, firstly, the purification from sinful impurity, the eradication of vices and passions in the old man; secondly, the restoration in man of the image of God. Although the book was written for monks, any Christian living in the world receives in it a reliable guide for ascending to God.

The degrees of the "Ladder" are the passage from strength to strength on the path of man's striving for perfection, which can be achieved not suddenly, but only gradually, for, according to the word of the Savior, "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12).

After four years of governing the monastery, the venerable John Climacus returned to solitude and silence and soon reposed in the Lord.