Ignatius of the Kiev Caves

Saint Ignatius of the Caves the venerable was archimandrite of the Kiev Caves Lavra in the fifteenth century (Ignatius I). It is known that he died before 1434, according to some sources in 1435, and an older record gives the year 1438. He is commemorated on 28 August (in the synaxis of the venerable fathers of the Far Caves), on 20 December and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

What is known of him

His name appears in the oldest known memorial book of the Lavra (end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century). The time of his death is determined from the fact that his successor, Archimandrite Nicephorus I, is mentioned as abbot in a manuscript of 1434. According to one account, he most probably succeeded Archbishop Barsanuphius in the archimandrite's office. From youth he trained himself in purity and innocence. Becoming a monk of the Lavra, by holy life, quietness and love for all he drew attention. The brethren unanimously chose him as guide, leader and shepherd of the monastery. But Saint Ignatius, with the higher rank, did not lessen the monastic labours, but sought to pray and fast more than others and to be humble. His sincere prayer and priestly service worked wonderfully on others; he healed the sick by his prayers and worked miracles. The sick recovered when they tasted the prosphora over which the liturgy had been served.

A short Life of him is known from an inscription copied in the seventeenth century from his gravestone, which says that the venerable Ignatius, archimandrite of the Caves, for his holy way of life received from God the gift of working miracles and healed many sick by his prayer, and anyone to whom it was given to taste the prosphora with which he served received healing; after death he is laid here in body, and in soul is in heaven with Christ and prays for us. His relics are in the Far Caves (of Saint Theodosius), opposite those of Joseph the Much-⁠Ailing, near the underground church of the Annunciation. A biochemical examination of the relics of the saints of the Caves, in 1982, showed that Ignatius died at about sixty years of age.

Veneration

His local veneration began at the end of the seventeenth century, when the archimandrite of the Lavra Varlaam (Yasinsky), later Metropolitan of Kyiv, established the celebration of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Far Caves, and the service of the synaxis was then composed. In the first ode of the canon of the saints of the Far Caves it is said of him: "Ignatius, shepherd of monastics and healer of the sick, help in our illnesses those who honour you, that at your memory we may bring a song of praise to God." Veneration in the whole Church began after the Holy Synod allowed, in the second half of the eighteenth century, the names of a number of Kyivan saints to be entered in the general calendars. His troparion and kontakion were written already in the seventeenth century, and the day of 20 December was set in the second half of the nineteenth century. An icon-⁠painting manual of the end of the eighteenth century describes him with a beard like Saint Sergius's, hair over the ears, a cap on his head, a red priestly vestment, a gold epitrachelion, holding the Gospel at his heart with both hands. His single icon in the iconostasis of the cave church of Saint Theodosius, of the first half of the eighteenth century, renewed in 1863, shows him standing, bareheaded, in mantle and epitrachelion, the right hand blessing, in the left the archimandrite's staff. His image is on several icons of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Kiev Caves and in the iconography "All Saints of the Russian Land", among the wonderworkers of the Far Caves.