Kuksha of the Kiev Caves

Saint Kuksha of the Kiev Caves, hieromartyr, was a hieromonk of the Kiev Caves Lavra, a missionary among the pagan Vyatichi of the river Oka, and was killed by them with his disciple Nikon at the beginning of the twelfth century. He is venerated as the baptizer of the Oryol region and as patron of the Oryol-⁠Livny diocese. He is commemorated on 27 August (9 September) and, in the synaxis of the venerable fathers of the Near Caves, on 27 September (11 October).

Life

The sources do not agree on the date of his death: 1110, 1113 or after 1114. The historian V. M. Kashkarov considered that his life was composed solely on the basis of what Saint Simon, Bishop of Vladimir, says of him in the Kiev Caves Paterikon. The name Kuksha is of pagan origin, so Archbishop Filaret (Gumilevsky) supposed that the saint himself came of the Vyatichi, perhaps from a family of princes or elders, and that after his labours at the Caves he returned to his kin to preach the Christian faith to them. According to monastery tradition, his monastic name was John.

With his disciple Nikon he preached to the Vyatichi, who lived on the Oka, in the lands of today's Oryol and Kaluga regions. The Paterikon tells that he baptized many Vyatichi and other pagans. In preaching he worked many signs and wonders: he cast out demons, brought rain from heaven, dried up a lake, all in the name of the Lord. Then he was seized, urged on by pagan priestesses, and after long torments was beheaded together with Nikon. He was about thirty to thirty-⁠five years old. It is said that Bishop Theoctistus saw to it that the martyr's body was brought to the Kiev Caves Lavra.

On the day of his death, in the monastery at Kiev, Venerable Pimen the Faster said aloud in the church, "Our brother Kuksha has been killed this day at dawn," and departed to the Lord on the same day, as Bishop Simon wrote to Abbot Polycarp. Three pillars of fire were then seen over the monastery. His relics rest in the Near Caves, opposite those of Pimen the Faster.

Veneration

The place of his death is unknown: scholars tentatively place it at Serensk on the river Serena, a tributary of the Zhizdra, where traces of Christian preaching have been found, or in the Mtsensk region near Frolovka, where the so-⁠called Sufferer's well is found, at which a service is held each year on 9 September. His memory is also kept in the synaxes of the saints of Tula (22 September) and Ryazan (10 June). An Orthodox gymnasium in Oryol bears his name, and on 6 August 2009, at the initiative of Archbishop Panteleimon, he was recognized as patron of the Oryol-⁠Livny diocese.