January 22, 2019

Venerable Martyr Anastasius the Deacon of the Kiev Caves

St. Anastasius the Deacon of the Kiev Caves (Feast Day - January 22)

Venerable Martyr Anastasius, Deacon of the Kiev Caves Lavra, lived an ascetical life in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony around the twelfth century. The hieromonk Athanasius the Sooty calls him the brother of Saint Titus the Presbyter (Feb. 27). In the manuscripts of the saints he is called a deacon. In the Service for the Synaxis of the Fathers of the Near Caves, it says that the Venerable Martyr Anastasius possessed such boldness before God, that he received everything he asked for.*

* I could not find why he is referred to as a Martyr. Perhaps it is a confusion with the Holy Martyr Anastasios the Persian, also commemorated on this day.