July 18, 2019

Saint Pambo of the Kiev Caves (+ 1241)

St. Pambo of the Kiev Caves (Feast Day - July 18)

Venerable Pambo lived in the thirteenth century, and was a Hieromonk of the Kiev Caves Lavra. During the siege of the monastery by the Tatars, the fathers of the monastery sent Pambo out to get some food. Despite the great danger, Pambo undertook the task as a form of obedience, but the Tatars captured him and tortured him in an attempt to get him to renounce his Christian faith. He said to them: “Your gods are cursed, and I believe in Christ, the true God, who made heaven and earth. He is the Lord, the only True and Almighty, and He will deliver me from your hands with the prayers of the Holy Cave.” Indeed, the monk miraculously escaped from the torturers, for being admired by the Angels, he was transferred by them to his cell in the Kiev Caves Lavra. Before his death he went into seclusion and reposed in peace in 1241. He was buried in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius.