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| St. Mardarius the Recluse (Feast Day - December 13) |
Venerable Mardarios lived in asceticism in the Far Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra in the thirteenth century. He tried to achieve perfection not only in fasting, prayers, obedience and other virtues, but also humbled himself without covetousness as a non-possessor and zealot for poverty that he didn’t even want to have a cell nor a single thing, leaving only one robe that he wore on himself. For these virtues he inherited an indescribable joy and dwelling in the Kingdom of Heaven.
