Material: 925◦ silver, 999◦ gold plated
Average weight: 8.0 grams
Size: 36*18mm
Technique: casting, gilding, blackening, handmade.
Prayer: "Our Venerable Father Agapit, pray to God for me"
Very little is known about the life of Saint Agapit. The Patericon says about him: “Someone from Kyiv, named Agapit, took the haircut under our father Anthony.” It is also said that in imitation of St. Anthony, he began to pray for the sick brethren, faithfully caring for them, and the Lord bestowed healing power on his prayers. Out of humility, Agapit decided to hide his gift and began to prayerfully give the sick ordinary food, which he cooked for himself from herbs, passing it off as medicine. So he lived for many years, never leaving the monastery. And many sick monks and laity, says the Patericon, came to him and received healing. The Lord revealed the secret of the saint already at the end of his life through an Armenian doctor who lived at that time in Kyiv.
This Armenian was a very skillful doctor, and was proud of the fact that he could accurately name the day and hour of the death of a seriously ill patient, while refusing to treat him. Once such a patient was brought to the Caves Monastery to Saint Agapit. The monk made a prayer, gave his potion, and the patient, contrary to the doctor's predictions, recovered. This incident stung the Armenian, and he decided to shame the saint. He gave poison to a condemned man and sent him to the monastery, expecting him to die at his entrance. But Agapit, seeing the dying man, gave him potions, prayed and brought him back to life. Then the angry Armenian sent the poison to Agapit himself. But the monk, guarded by the Holy Spirit, drank it without any harm.
At that time, Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh fell ill. The Armenian treated him, but the disease became more and more intensified. The prince summoned the hegumen of the Caves and asked him to bring Agapit to him. However, the blessed one refused: "If I go to the prince, then go to everyone." The envoy of the prince begged the holy healer to give him at least a potion, which he took to Vladimir. Having tasted it, the prince immediately recovered.
Soon, Vladimir himself came to the Caves Monastery, wanting to thank the monk who healed him. But Agapit hid from him, and the gold brought was given to the hegumen. Then the prince sent a boyar to the saint with many gifts. The boyar began to persuade the monk to accept the gifts and distribute them, if he wanted, to the poor. “Let the one who sent you distribute all this to those in need,” the monk replied, “because when dying, he cannot take anything with him. And for this the Lord delivered him from death.” Agapit left the gifts brought to him at the entrance to the cell. The prince did not dare to disobey the holy elder and began to generously distribute his property to the poor.
Soon Agapit himself fell ill. An Armenian doctor came to him, looked at him and said that the saint would die in three days. At the same time, he promised that if this did not happen, he would change his faith and become a monk. Agapit answered him that he himself knew about the day of his death: the Lord revealed to him that he would die in three months, and not in three days.
And so it happened. The saint reposed in the Lord three months later, around the year 1095. And soon after that, an Armenian came to the monastery and said that Saint Agapit had appeared to him and reminded him of this promise, threatening that if he did not fulfill it, then he would destroy his life and soul. The Armenian took the vows in the Caves Monastery "and ended his life in a good confession."
For the fact that on earth he was a disinterested doctor, the Lord repaid him many times in Heaven, where there are neither sorrows nor diseases. And after death, the Monk Agapit does not stop praying for the sick and helps everyone who asks him for healing. The memory of the holy Monk Agapit is celebrated on the day of his death on June 1 (14), and also on September 28 (October 11) together with the Cathedral of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves, in the Near Caves.
An image depicting Rev. Agapita is made in the form of an icon case, which resembles a temple window. According to the figurative comparison of the holy fathers, an icon is a clean window into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, in ancient times, it was the shape of the window that was most often used to frame icons. In the hands of Rev. Agapit holds his “medicines”, with which he healed people from mental and bodily ailments: this is a vessel with consecrated oil and a spoon and a small bouquet of herbs and flowers. On the back of the icon in Church Slavonic is written a prayer appeal to the saint: "Our Reverend Father Agapit, pray to God for me."
