Monastic life and ascetic struggle
According to the synaxarion, Thomas embraced monasticism early and became sufficiently seasoned that the brethren of the new foundation on the River Sagaris chose him as their head when a Byzantine official named Galoliktos established the monastery there. The Greek tradition relates that he governed the community in an orderly way and served as an example to his fellow monks.
From this position he afterward withdrew into the wilderness to pursue a more solitary discipline. The accounts describe a prolonged period of ascetic struggle in which he is said to have overcome many temptations; the Greek synaxarion adds that demonic attacks took the form of mosquitoes, flies, wasps, and snakes, from which he was delivered through prayer. The tradition holds that he was granted the gifts of healing and of prophecy, or clairvoyance, in the course of this long labor.