Our Holy Fathers Mark the Gravedigger and Theophilus the Weeper.

Commemorated December 29 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

They were monks of the Caves in Kiev. St Mark had such grace that he could command the dead and they would listen to him. 'Wait till tomorrow, my brother; your grave isn't ready yet', he is recorded as having said to a dead monk, who was already washed and embalmed, and the monk opened his eyes and lived till the following day. Theophilus wept constantly for his sins, catching his tears in a basin. An angel appeared to him at the time of his death, and showed him a very large basin full of tears. These were Theophilus's tears, that had fallen to the ground or been wiped away with his hand, or had dried on his face. Thus in heaven they know and keep all our tears along with our sufferings and labours and sighs for the sake of our salvation. These holy servants of God entered into rest in the eleventh century, and went to the kingdom of Christ.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK