Sylvester of Kyiv

Venerable Sylvester of Kyiv (Sylvester of the Caves) was abbot of the Mikhailovsky monastery at Vydubychi, in Kyiv, in the twelfth century, and a chronicler. Born about 1055, he died in 1123 at Pereiaslav, where he was bishop. He is commemorated on 2 January (new style), and as one of the Fathers of the Near Caves on 28 September.

He continued the work of the chronicler Nestor and wrote nine lives of the saints of the Kyiv Caves Lavra. In the service of the Fathers of the Near Caves he is called blessed and endowed with a “wondrous gift of warding off demonic thoughts”. He was buried in the Near Caves.