St. Theophilus of Kiev

St. Theophilus of Kiev was born about 1788 in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire and, according to his life, was marked from infancy by unusual signs of a special calling. He became a monk associated with the Kiev Caves and the monasteries around that ancient holy city, and embraced the demanding and paradoxical path of the "fool-for-Christ," feigning madness and eccentricity to hide his holiness and to mortify his own pride.

Behind his strange behavior, his shabby dress, his blunt and riddling speech, lay a life of severe asceticism, ceaseless prayer, and profound union with God, together with gifts of foresight and the reading of hearts. The people, and even the great of the land, came to recognize the wisdom concealed beneath his folly and sought his counsel and his prayers. He died on 28 October 1853. Long venerated among the elders of Kiev, he was glorified as a saint, and his memory is kept on that day.