July 10, 2019

Saint Silouan of the Kiev Caves

St. Silouan of the Kiev Caves (Feast Day - July 10)

The Holy Schemamonk Silouan of the Kiev Caves, zealously preserved the purity of both body and soul, subduing his flesh with fasting and vigils, and cleansing his soul with prayer and the contemplation of God. The Lord granted him an abundance of spiritual gifts: boldness before God, constant joy in the Lord, clairvoyance and wonderworking. He lived at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries.


When certain thieves climbed into the monastery's garden to steal vegetables by night, Silouan foresaw their arrival, and in an attempt to bring them to a consciousness of their crime, he held them for three days with his prayer in complete immobility, and then, after instructing them to repent, released them, and encouraged them to live a hardworking life. According to the results of anthropological research, he reposed at the age of 30-35. His incorrupt relics rest in the Far Caves.