Venerable (Monastic)13th century

Venerable Sisoes the Schemamonk of the Kiev Far Caves

Also known as Sisoes of the Kiev Caves

A schemamonk of the Far Caves of Kiev, remembered among the holy fathers whose relics rest there.

July 6New Calendar

Feast Day

July 19Old Calendar

Suggest a correction Contribute

Icon galleryBrowse icons and imagery elsewhere

Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Sisoes the Schemamonk of the Far Caves of Kiev

Life

Sisoes the Schemamonk was a thirteenth-century monastic of the Kiev Caves monastery whose relics rest in the Far Caves. He had received the Great Schema, the highest degree of the monastic life, and is remembered among the holy fathers of the Far Caves rather than through a separate detailed biography. He is commemorated on July 6 and is distinct from the earlier Egyptian desert father Sisoes the Great, who shares that date.

Like many of the monastics of the Caves, little of his individual history survives. He is named within the general service for the Monastic Fathers of the Kiev Caves whose relics are preserved in the Far Caves, where the canon recalls his asceticism alongside that of Saint Gregory the Faster.

Troparion1 hymnReadHide

TroparionTone 8

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy father Sisoes, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributionsReadHide

Monastic Life and Commemoration

Sisoes belonged to the monastic community of the Kiev Caves and is associated specifically with the Far Caves, the section of the underground complex also known as the Caves of Theodosius. As a schemamonk he had taken on the Great Schema, the most demanding form of the monastic vocation.

His memory is preserved chiefly through the collective commemoration of the Far Caves fathers. The fifth ode of the canon for that service joins his name with that of Gregory the Faster, recalling that both restrained their passions through fasting.

Relics and Shrines

His relics rest in the Far Caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The monastery, traced to the eleventh-century settlement of the Venerable Anthony and the abbacy of the Venerable Theodosius, became renowned for the incorrupt relics of its many monastic saints, who were glorified in 1643 under Metropolitan Peter Mogila. The fathers of the Far Caves are venerated together in a general synaxis, within which Sisoes is numbered.

Member ofReadHide

Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Far Caves

Commemorated together · Aug 28

Companions1 figureShowHide

Fellow ascetic of the Far Caves; the canon of the Far Caves fathers joins their names in restraining the passions through fasting.

Venerable Gregorythe Faster of the Far Caves

Related Saints4 saintsShowHide

Saints connected to his life, mission, and place in Orthodox tradition.

Founder of the Kiev Caves monastery to whose community Sisoes belonged.

Anthonyof the Kyiv Caves

Co-founder and organizer of the Kiev Caves monastic life.

Theodosiusof the Kyiv Caves