Sylvester the Wonderworker

Venerable Sylvester the Wonderworker of the Caves was a monk of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, in the twelfth century. He is venerated as a saint and commemorated on 28 September and on 2 January.

According to the Ukrainian source, he accomplished his monastic struggle in the twelfth century and was hegumen of the monastery of Saint Michael at Vydubychi in Kyiv. It is said that he continued the work of the chronicler Venerable Nestor and wrote nine lives of the saints of the Caves. In the service of the fathers of the Near Caves, Venerable Sylvester is called blessed and is credited with "a wonderful gift of driving off demonic attacks".

Venerable Sylvester reposed in peace in the Lord and was buried in the Near Caves. His commemoration is also kept on 28 September, with the Synaxis of the venerable fathers of the Near Caves, and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

On the map of the Near Caves of 1638 he is mentioned as "the holy elder Sylvester the humble, wonderworker", in 1661 and 1703 as "Sylvester", in 1744 as "venerable Seliverst", from 1769 to 1789 as "holy Sylvester", and in 1795 and in the nineteenth century as "venerable Sylvester".

His relics rest in the Near Caves in Kyiv, near the relics of Saint Abraham the Hard-⁠worker. On all maps from 1661 on, the relics of the ascetic are shown in the great common vault in the south-⁠western part of the labyrinth, called the "Community".