Our Venerable Fathers Onuphrius the Silent and Onesimos the Recluse, of the Kiev Caves
Life
Saints Onuphrius the Silent and Onesimos the Recluse were two ascetics of the Kiev Caves Lavra who labored in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony. Onuphrius is assigned to the twelfth century and Onesimos to the twelfth or thirteenth; the historical record preserves little of their lives beyond the manner of their struggle, which is fixed in the epithets by which they are commemorated.
Onuphrius is called "the Silent" for the discipline of unbroken silence he kept as part of his monastic life, while Onesimos is called "the Recluse" because he enclosed himself in the Near Caves to give himself to stillness and prayer. They are commemorated together on July 21 in the calendar of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Timeline 2 moments
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12th centuryOnuphrius the Silent in the Near CavesSaint Onuphrius labors as an ascetic in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony at the Kiev Caves Lavra, keeping the discipline of silence.
12th–13th centuryOnesimos enclosed as a recluseSaint Onesimos enters reclusion in the Near Caves, where his relics afterward rest in the place of his struggle.
Contributions & Legacy
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Life and Asceticism
Both saints belonged to the monastic community of the Kiev Caves Lavra and pursued their ascetic struggle in the Near Caves, the caves associated with Saint Anthony, as distinguished from the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius within the same monastic complex. Onuphrius is recorded as an ascetic of the Near Caves in the twelfth century; Onesimos, placed in the twelfth or thirteenth century, enclosed himself there as a recluse.
Their epithets describe their chosen forms of asceticism rather than narrating particular events. Onuphrius held to silence as a spiritual discipline, and Onesimos lived shut away from the world in reclusion. The sources do not preserve a connected biography for either saint.
Relics & Shrines
The relics of Saint Onesimos rest in the Near Caves, in the place of his ascetical labors. Saint Onuphrius is likewise venerated among the monastic fathers whose relics lie in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony; particles of his relics are also preserved at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Washington, D.C.
Veneration
The two saints share a common commemoration on July 21. Saint Onuphrius is additionally commemorated on September 28 with the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Near Caves, and Saint Onesimos on October 4. Both are numbered among the monastic fathers venerated in the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra.
