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Thursday, November 12
Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite
Sinaxarion

Holy Venerables

The myrrh-⁠streaming heads of the Far Caves

thirty nameless saints

Thirty saints whose names are unknown, whose heads stream myrrh, resting in the Far Caves of the Kyiv Lavra.

Feast
August 28old style September 10
Era
unknown
Place
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Far Caves
Order
Venerables

Life

The myrrh-⁠streaming heads of the Far Caves are the relics of thirty venerable saints whose names are unknown, kept in the Far Caves of the Kyiv Caves Lavra. They are commemorated together, in the Synaxis of the venerable fathers of the Far Caves, as thirty nameless saints.

Myrrh flows from their heads. A Catholic traveller, Martin Gruneweg, wrote in 1584 about the caves of the Lavra that there are heads in them from whose teeth myrrh drips into vessels, which was considered very healing.

The names of these saints are not known, but the Church commemorates them together.

Commemorated the same day August 28