He visited some of the monasteries in the hinterland of Jordan, where he learned about monastic life.
[4] According to his hagiography, he chose to despise his own body, always sleeping in the open air without shelter, dressed only in a few rags, and withstood both heat and cold.
He ate only once a week, spent his time wandering in the desert, always slept under the open sky, and never lay down, choosing always to remain standing or sitting.
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Bessarion received the gift of performing miracles from God, and would have used this ability to quench the thirst of his disciples, by using his prayer alone to make rivers flow in the desolate lands where he lived.
It is said that his humility was so great that once, while visiting a skete, seeing a priest chasing away a novice caught sinning, he ran to the two exclaiming, "I too am a sinner".