Isaiah of the Kiev Caves

Saint Isaiah of the Caves was a monk of the Kyiv Caves Lavra at the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth century, who reposed, according to tradition, on 15 May 1115. He is venerated as a venerable saint. He is commemorated on 15 (28) May, on 28 September (11 October) and in the second week of Great Lent, in the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Caves.

Life

Few testimonies survive of his life, and his Life is not found in the Paterikon. According to Archbishop Philaret (Gumilevsky), the labour by which he pleased God was silence and untiring work, which lasted into old age, for which he is called "the venerable hard-⁠working elder". In the common service of the Venerable Fathers of the Caves he is praised as a "turtle dove who loves the desert", and in the troparia and kontakia he is shown as an ascetic who enlightened his soul with fasting and unceasing prayer. For his labours he received from God the gift of working miracles and of victory over unclean spirits.

Together with Saints Onuphrius and Sylvester he is said to have received the gift of repelling all the attacks of demons: "Onuphrius, lover of silence, Isaiah, turtle dove who loves the desert, with blessed Sylvester, a threefold cord against the demons, have smothered to the end the passionate thoughts brought by them and have the gift of helping others." His death is placed on 15 May 1115.

Relics and depiction

His relics rest in the Near Caves of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, in the underground "Refectory", beside the relics of Saint Sylvester. An icon painters' manual of the end of the eighteenth century directs that he be painted as an old man with a round beard, longer than Saint Nicholas's, with a black cowl on his head, in monastic robe, with an ochre lining.