Venerable Nicetas of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod

Nikita was a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery in the 11th century. Against the advice of Abbot Nikon he shut himself up in a cave as a young man. The Kiev Caves Paterikon tells that he was deceived by a demon in the form of an angel: he stopped praying and only read books, learned the whole Old Testament by heart, refused to hear the Gospels, and gained fame as a prophet.

The elders of the monastery prayed over him, and, the Paterikon says, he forgot everything he had learned, so that he barely could be taught to read again. He repented and lived humbly and strictly. In 1096 he became bishop of Novgorod and led its church for thirteen years. His Life says that his prayer brought rain in a drought and put out a fire in the city. He died on 30 January 1108; his relics were uncovered in 1558.