Theophilus of Kyiv

Venerable Theophilus of Kyiv (in the world Foma Andreevich Gorenkovsky, 1788 to 1853) was a hieroschemamonk of the Kyiv Caves Lavra and a fool for Christ. Born into a priest's family at Makhnivka, in present-⁠day Ukraine, orphaned young and wandering from place to place, he came to Kyiv, where he received the great schema and bore the struggle of folly. He is venerated for the gift of prophecy and miracles and for his humility. He fell asleep on the day of the commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, in 1853.

Childhood and youth

Foma was born in 1788 into a priest's family, in the township of Makhnivka in Kyiv province (today a village in the Vinnytsia region). His Life says that after birth the child would not take his mother's milk, but did not refuse lenten food, boiled turnip and carrot. His mother, frightened and superstitious, tried three times to drown him, but he was saved by a miracle. At seven he was orphaned and became a wanderer, which prepared his later folly.

Wandering among the households of relatives, he came to the Kyiv Brotherhood monastery, where he began to study at the Academy. After the death of an uncle who had helped him with money, he left his studies and was a sacristan, first at Chyhyryn, then at Obukhiv. During the war of 1812 he returned to the Brotherhood monastery and became a novice.

Monk and fool for Christ

On 11 December 1821 he was tonsured a monk, with the name Theodorit. On 30 September 1822 he was ordained hierodeacon, on 6 February 1827 hieromonk, and on 9 December 1834 he received the great schema, with the name Theophilus. After that he took upon himself the labour of folly for Christ.

His Life tells of the gift of prophecy and of working miracles. Many came to the elder for counsel and blessing. It is known that Theophilus set up crosses at the place where the Transfiguration hermitage and the Ionin monastery would rise. He is also credited with the prophecy of the appearance of the convent of the Protection of the Mother of God at Hlybochytsia, founded thirty-⁠six years after his death by Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna.

The blessed one rode in a cart drawn by a bullock, which knew by itself the way from the Caves Lavra to the Kitaev hermitage and back. According to the Life, he met Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich several times. He refused to bless him, saying he would have to pass through thorns. He foretold the Crimean War, which would go badly, and the death of the emperor.

His repose

Theophilus fell asleep on 28 October 1853 (old style), on the day of the commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, whom he honoured especially. The Life preserves a prophecy of his death: he meant to ask the Heavenly King to winter on earth, because Praskovia, as he called Saint Paraskeva, did not want to dig a grave for him in winter. Before his death he prepared all that was needed for his burial, lit the lamps in his cell, censed it and told one of the novices to ring the bell. The Life says he fell asleep speaking the words of Simeon the God-⁠receiver: "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit".

Glorification

In 1993, together with the venerable Dosithea, Parthenius and Alexis, and the fool for Christ Paisius, Theophilus was numbered among the locally venerated saints of the Caves. Another source says that in 1999 the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church canonized him. In 2000 he was canonized by the Russian Church Outside Russia. The commemoration of the glorification is on 14 (27) July, and of the repose on 28 October.

The saint's relics, kept earlier in the Holy Trinity church, then a parish church, on the grounds of the Kitaev hermitage, were moved on 24 February 2009 to the monastery church of the Twelve Apostles. His grave is there as well. In Soviet times, when the monastery's territory was given to a horticultural research institute, the burial place remained known because a monument stood over it.

On 1 April 2015 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by Metropolitan Onuphry, established the feast of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land, in which 15 ascetics linked to that region were included, among them Venerable Theophilus. The feast is on 14 September (new style), the day of the beginning of the indiction. On 3 February 2016 the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church blessed his veneration throughout the Church and entered his name in the Russian calendar. Many fragments of the saint's life formed the basis of the screenplay of the film "The Island".