Pimen the Faster

Venerable Pimen the Faster and Seer was a monk of the Caves monastery in Kyiv, in the Near Caves, and died around 1113. He was a fellow ascetic of the holy hieromartyr Kuksha of the Caves. His commemoration is on 11 October and on 9 September by the new calendar, which is 28 September and 27 August by the old.

He led a very strict life and fasted with severity. He had the gift of healing the sick and of foreseeing events, even very distant ones, and he foretold his own death two years beforehand.

He died on the same day as the holy hieromartyr Kuksha. Of the latter's killing by pagans, Pimen spoke out during the church service, saying the words recorded in the Paterikon: “Our brother Kuksha has been killed against the light.”

He is mentioned in the Paterikon of the Caves, in the life of Venerable Nikita the Recluse, in the time of the abbacy of Nikon the Great, and therefore not later than 1088. His relics rest in the Near Caves, beside those of Saint Kuksha.

Archbishop Filaret Gumilevsky points out that his life must not be confused with that of Venerable Pimen the Faster, abbot of the Caves, whose relics are in the Far Caves, nor with that of Venerable Pimen the Much-⁠Ailing.