Venerable Maximus Kavsokalyvites of Athos (+1354)

The Venerable Maximus Kavsokalyvites was seventeen when he left his parental home, took the monastic habit, and became the novice of the best teacher in Macedonia, the elder Mark. After his teacher’s death Saint Maximus continued his labours under the guidance of several desert fathers distinguished by their ascetic life. When he came to Constantinople, the saint was constantly in the church of the Theotokos at Blachernae and lived almost the life of a recluse. To escape the danger of glorification by men and to hide his labours, Maximus began to play the fool for Christ. On Athos he settled as a novice in the lavra of the Venerable Athanasius. Here, on the summit of the Holy Mountain, God counted him worthy of an appearance of the Theotokos. When the saint told one monk of his vision, the latter judged him deluded. God’s chosen one turned this mistrust to good: under the cover of delusion and pride he hid his wonderful labours. To strengthen the opinion that he was mad, the Venerable Maximus often changed his dwelling. He burned the grass huts he left behind, and so he was nicknamed Kavsokalyvites, the hut-burner (one who burns huts). The fathers of the Holy Mountain knew what an ascetic life the saint lived and how many sorrows and trials he endured, but they could not change the opinion of him they had formed. The Venerable Gregory of Sinai (+c. 1310; commemorated 8 August), who had come to Athos, after talking with the monk thought to be deluded, could not hide his amazement and said: why, this is an angel on earth! The Venerable Gregory insistently asked Maximus to stop playing the fool and to settle in one place, so that others too could share in his spiritual experience. The saint obeyed the entreaty of Gregory and the other monks and settled in a cave next to a well-known elder, Isaiah. Maximus was endowed with the grace of foreknowledge. Even the Byzantine emperors, John Palaeologus (1341–1374) and John Cantacuzene (1341–1355), turned to him and afterwards marvelled at the accuracy of what he had foretold. The saint worked a great many miracles. One holy father even saw him walking on the air.

Only before his death did the Venerable Maximus give up the hermit’s life and settle near the Lavra of Athanasius, where he reposed in 1354 at the age of ninety-five.