Fool for Christ
He was born in 1788 in the family of a priest and was baptized as Thomas. His mother, unable to feed him, saved him from starving by giving him potato mush. Superstitious neighbors considered him a monster, and his mother attempted to drown him, but he was protected by God. After his father's death, he was taken to be raised in the Brotherhood Monastery in Podil, where he took monastic vows and lived in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Theophilus cared for the purity of his soul but not for his body; he wore tattered clothes and was always dirty. He rode around Kyiv on a bullock, reading the Psalter, and reproached the sins of the pilgrims who came to him. Once, he poured borscht on the dress of a lady, reproaching her for adultery.
Metropolitan Filaret saw him sitting in a tree in prayer. Theophilus, helping hungry travelers, would light a fire without matches and cook porridge, which did not diminish until everyone was fed.
Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich, wishing to know the future of Russia, visited him. Theophilus, covered in ants, predicted that the Turkish army would attack Sevastopol, which indeed came true.
On the day of his death, he ordered the cell to be cleaned, a lamp to be lit, and incense to be burned. He predicted that the Angel of Death would appear to him, and accepting this with peace, he passed away on October 28, 1853. He was buried by the northern wall of the Holy Trinity Church in the Kyiv Caves Monastery.
After his death, many receive help in illnesses and sorrows by invoking his name and performing panikhidas at his grave.
On July 14/27, 1993, he was canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and his incorrupt relics were transferred to the Church of the Holy Trinity.
