Venerable Theophilus (Feofil) of Kiev, Fool-for-Christ

Saint Theophilus (Feofil) of Kiev, fool-for-Christ, was born Foma (Thomas) Andreyevich Gorenkovsky in October 1788 in the town of Makhnovka, Kiev province, son of a church reader. In 1812 he entered Kiev's Bratsky Monastery; he was tonsured a monk with the name Feodorit in 1821, ordained hieromonk in 1827, and in 1834 received the great schema with the name Theophilus, embracing the ascetic feat of foolishness for Christ's sake. He wore filthy, tattered clothing, mismatched footwear, and rode about Kiev on an ox-drawn cart, the animal said to discern good-hearted visitors from ill-wishers. Gifted with prophecy and clairvoyance, he foretold a fire at the Kiev Caves Lavra to Metropolitan Filaret (Amfiteatrov), handing him a charred piece of wood; when the fire occurred as predicted, the metropolitan came to revere him deeply, lodging him at his own Golosiivo hermitage retreat alongside Hieroschemamonk Parthenius. In 1849 Theophilus was transferred to the Kitaevo Hermitage near Kiev, where he reposed on October 28, 1853. He was glorified by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on July 14/27, 1993. His relics rest in the Church of the Twelve Apostles at the Kitaevo Hermitage in Kiev.