Saint Kuksha of the Kiev Caves († after 1114) was a monk and martyr from the Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kiev, Ukraine. He has been canonized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church for his work spreading Christianity among the heathen East Slavic tribe of Vyatichi (of the Oka basin, in present-day Kaluga, Ryazan, and Tula oblasts of Russia). Being a monk at Kiev Pechersk Lavra, he left to preach Gospel to idol-worshippers Viatichi. He there performed numerous miracles. Impressed by his powers and rendered receptive by his preaching, the heathens began to convert and accept baptism. Priests of Viatichi, furious over the destruction of their idols, decapitated Kuksha and his pupil. On the day of Kuksha's death, his spiritual father Saint Pimen the Faster stood in the middle of the monastery church and loudly proclaimed: "Our brother Kuksha has been killed this day". Saint Pimen died the same day. The memory of Saint Kuksha, his follower, and Saint Pimen the Faster is celebrated at the Monastery on the days of their deaths, 27 August and 27 September The relics of Saint Kuksha are kept at St. Anthony Caves of the Kiev Monastery.
The icon is inscribed on the back with the following text in Old Slavonic:
"This holy icon of Saint martyr and miracleworker Kuksha of the Kiev Caves, copy of his burial casket's icon, was blessed on his holy relics in the near caves of the Kiev Caves monastery on October 5, 1881 under a vow of Andrey Feodorovich Kovalevsky"
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