Paphnutius the Recluse

Venerable Paphnutius the Recluse was a monk and recluse of the Kiev Caves Monastery in the thirteenth century or, according to other data, the twelfth. He is commemorated on 15 February (Julian calendar), together with all the holy fathers of the Far Caves, and on 28 August. Very little is known of his life.

It is said that after receiving the monastic habit he wept and sighed unceasingly all his life, thinking of the hour of the soul's parting from the body, when angels and spirits of wickedness will surround a person, show him all his deeds, good and bad, and recall to him all his thoughts and desires, what he has forgotten and what he did not count as sin. On this he meditated, wept and sighed all his days.

Paphnutius allowed himself to be walled up in his cell, renouncing the world and its pleasures freely and entirely. By the rule of the Caves Lavra, recluses were left each day at the window a cup of water and a piece of bread, their food for the day. If the bread and water remained untouched, it was a sign that the monk inside had died.

The Ukrainian source says that at the end of his life the venerable one saw the faces of the angels who received his soul and bore it to heaven. His name is mentioned in the eighth ode of the canon of commemoration, in which he is called the one who wept without ceasing and is asked to pray that we too may dwell in a place without weeping. His incorrupt relics rest in the Far Caves (of Saint Theodosius) of the Lavra, near the relics of Saint Moses the Wonderworker and Saint Hilarion the Schemamonk, close to the underground church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God. The Serbian source commemorates him on 15 (28) February and on 28 August (10 September).