Commemoration: October 17

Very little information about this saint has been preserved. Most likely, he lived and labored in the Pechersk Monastery in the second half of the 13th century. This was written on the ancient boards that sealed the caves containing the holy relics. While the inscriptions themselves have not survived, their text has been reproduced in an old book, Brief Accounts of the Lives of the Venerable Fathers of the Far Caves.

From this source, we learn that, with the blessing of the abbot, he made pilgrimages to the Holy Mount Athos and Jerusalem. Though such pilgrimages on their own do not indicate sainthood, upon his return to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the reverence of the venerable Ammon astonished even the elders. His holy and exalted life became an example of monastic practice for many, and he was given the name “The Diligent.”

St. Ammon was humble and very unassuming. Through his earthly asceticism, he acquired imperishable treasures in Heaven. By the end of his life, having been filled with spiritual poverty, he so loved bodily poverty that he enclosed himself in one of the Far Caves. Even there, he amazed the brethren with his many ascetic feats, which humiliated all the wiles of the enemy of the human race.

In the 17th century, the Archimandrite of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Varlaam (Yasinsky), who later became the Metropolitan of Kyiv, established the feast of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Far Caves. It was likely at that time that a service to the venerable Ammon was composed.

His name day is celebrated on October 17 (October 4 according to the old style), as this is the day of commemoration of the venerable Ammon of Egypt, a disciple of St. Anthony the Great.