Venerable Athanasius the Recluse of the Kiev Caves

Venerable Athanasius the Recluse of the Kiev Caves lived a careless, negligent monastic life at first, for which the brethren rebuked him. Falling ill, he died, but the brothers, being poor, could not bury him for two days. On the third day, to everyone's astonishment, Athanasius rose again and, shutting himself in a cave, lived there another twelve years in complete silence, revealing to no one what he had seen beyond the threshold of death, except for a brief exhortation: "Save yourselves!" Throughout this time he wept unceasingly over his sins and prayed, eating only bread and water every other day. His ascetic life in seclusion became a living testimony to the brethren of the reality of judgment beyond the grave and a spur to repentance. He reposed having earned universal respect as a great faster and man of silence; his relics rest in the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra.