|
From among the saints commemorated on the 24th of March, we especially remember the life and works of Venerable
Zachariah the Ascetic of the Kiev Caves.
Saint Zachariah the Faster of
the Caves was an ascetic in the Far Caves in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries. He fasted so strictly that he ate nothing
baked nor boiled, and he consumed only greens once a day at the setting of the sun. Demons trembled at the mere mention of
his name. Often
the monk saw angels, with which he deserved to live in Heaven. Before his death, John had transferred his property to his friend Sergius. This was
when the igumen was Saint Nikon (March 23). Zachariah was five years old at the time. At age fifteen, i.e., not later than
the year 1098, he obtained his inheritance from Sergius, in order to give it to the monastery. However, Saint Zachariah the
Faster of the Caves lived approximately 200 years later.
|
