John the Faster of the Kiev Caves

Venerable John the Faster of the Caves was a monk of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, a keeper of the fast, probably in the thirteenth century. The Russian Church venerates him among the venerable saints. Little is known of his life, and the date and place of his birth are not known.

His commemoration is kept by the old calendar on 7 December, on the second Sunday of Great Lent, in the Synaxis of all the venerable fathers of the Kyiv Caves, and on 28 September, in the Synaxis of the fathers of the Caves who rest in the Near Caves.

His incorrupt relics lie in the Near Caves (of Anthony) of the Caves Lavra, in the left chapel of the underground church of Saint Anthony of the Caves, at number 3 on the plan of the caves. The report of the relics of Venerable John resting in the Near Caves, together with those of other venerable ones of the same name, first appears in the work Teratourgema of the monk Athanasius Kalnofoysky, of 1638.

The venerable one is praised in the seventh troparion of the fifth ode of the canon of his service: led by the Spirit, he was called a son of the Most High, enlightened by fasting, for he was fed more by the word of God than by food. In the icon painters' manual of the end of the eighteenth century his appearance is described thus: gray-⁠haired, with a beard like that of Sergius, a black klobuk on his head, a monastic robe, azure lining.