 St. Daniel was born in Maratha, a village in upper Mesopotamia near Samosata in present-day Turkey.He entered a monastery at the age of 12 and lived there until he was thirty-eight.During a voyage he made with his abbot to Antioch, he passed by the city of Telanissos (today Deir Semaan) and received the benediction and encouragement of St. Simeon the Stylite.