Zachariah, faster of the Kiev Caves, venerable (Far Caves)
Dates of commemoration
(Church calendar - Feb 27) Synaxis of all Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves (movable feast on the 2nd Sunday of the Great Lent)
Life
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 desired to live in Heaven. The identification of Saint Zachariah, Faster of Caves, with Zachariah the son of John of Kiev, who had given all his inheritance for the adornment of the Caves temple and became a monk at the monastery, is unfounded.
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.
Source:
https://oca.org/saints/lives/2017/03/24/100879-venerable-zachariah-the-ascetic-of-the-kiev-caves
Holy relic type
unless specified otherwise below, "holy relic" means a fragment of a bone of the saint
Holy relic
Location of the holy relic in the Cathedral:
North kliros, reliquary #5
Troparion
Тропарь преподобного Захарии, постника Печерского, в Дальних пещерах, глас 3
Постническаго ради твоего жития, блаженне Захарие,/ яко приемый велию на бесы крепость,/ моли и нам техже козней избыти,/ получити грехов прощение/ и велию милость.
Kontakion
Кондак преподобного Захарии, постника Печерского, в Дальних пещерах, глас 1
В постничестве светло яко просиявый/ и бесом страшен яко явивыйся,/ всечестне Захарие,/ укрепи и нас твоими молитвами/ постническое житие имети/ и бесовскаго избавитися злодейства,/ яко да ублажаем тя.