Martyrius of the Kiev Caves

Venerable Martyrius of the Caves was a monk and deacon of the Kiev Caves Monastery, known for purity of soul and strict fasting. The sources do not say precisely when he lived: they place his life at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century or, elsewhere, in the fourteenth century. His relics, incorrupt, lie in the Far Caves (of Saint Theodosius). He is commemorated on 25 October, on 28 August and on the second Sunday of Great Lent; the dates are Old Style.

Life

Of his life as a layman nothing is known. For his purity of soul and strict fasting he was made deacon and received the gift of working miracles. Tradition says that whomever he prayed for to God, standing on the ambo, the Lord had mercy on, and each received what the venerable asked, either health or the fulfilment of some other wish. Demons feared him and he drove them out of people by prayer. His name is mentioned in the seventh ode of the canon of the Venerable Fathers of the Far Caves, where his labour, righteousness and purity of heart are praised, as well as the gift of driving out demons and healing sicknesses. He reposed in the monastery.

The relics

His relics rest in the Far Caves, beside those of the venerable Euphrosyne, abbess of Polotsk, and not far from the underground church of Saint Theodosius, abbot of the Caves. Medical and anthropological studies of the relics of the Caves Lavra showed that in life he suffered a serious injury to the right shinbone, which would have led to a long chronic limp; he died at the age of 55 to 60, and was 174 to 175 cm tall.

His special commemoration, on 25 October, is probably owed to the name he shares with the holy martyr Martyria (died 355). He is also commemorated on 28 August and, on the second Sunday of Great Lent, with all the Venerable Fathers of the Caves.