Venerable Mark the Gravedigger of the Kiev Caves

Venerable Mark the Gravedigger labored in the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Monastery at the turn of the 11th–12th centuries. He carried out the rare obedience of digging graves in the caves for the deceased brethren with his own hands, bearing this heavy physical labor with great patience and without complaint. According to the Kiev Caves Paterikon (Discourse 32), God granted him wonderworking power even over the dead: once, at his prayer, a deceased monk rose and moved himself into the grave prepared for him, obeying the saint's command; another time, at his word, a dead brother waited three days without decaying for forgiveness from a brother he had wronged, before finally being laid to rest. He was renowned for non-acquisitiveness and humility, taking on the most sorrowful labor of the monastery as his obedience. His relics rest in the Near (Anthony's) Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra. Feast: December 29/January 11, and also in the Synaxis of the Near Caves Fathers.