Kuksha of Odessa

Kuksha of Odessa, born Kuzma Kirillovich Velichko ( in Arbuzynka, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire – 24 December 1964 in Odessa, USSR), was an imperial Russian priest and a Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) saint who was canonized in 1995.

Early life Kosma Velitchko was born on 12 January 1875 in the village of Arbuzynka in the Nikolaev Province of the Kherson Governorate to Kirill and Kharitina Velitchko. Although his mother dreamed of becoming a nun in her youth, she married to obey her parents. She had two more sons—Theodore (Fedor) and John (Ivan)—and a daughter, Maria, hoping that one of her children would enter the monastic life.

During his youth, Velitchko walked to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, the far-northern Valaam and Solovki monasteries, and Jerusalem and the Holy Land in 1895. He lived in Jerusalem for six months, and visited all of Palestine's sacred places. On his way back, Velitchko visited Mount Athos. Before leaving the mountain, the pilgrims went to the archimandrite of Saint Panteleimon monastery for a blessing and Velitchko expressed his desire to join the monks there. The archimandrite told him to return after a year, and gave him a small icon of Saint Panteleimon (the monastery's patron saint). Velitchko kept it for his entire life.

Joining Saint Panteleimon monastery (1896) Velitchko arrived at Athos (with his parents’ blessing) in 1896, became a novice at Saint Panteleimon Monastery and was placed in charge of altar offerings (prosphoras). He visited Jerusalem again with his mother in 1897. Two events occurred in Jerusalem. Pilgrims unable to have children tried to bathe first at the Siloam baths, so God would grant them children. Velitchko fell into the water, to the amusement of the people who began saying that he would have many children. The following year, after the outbreak of World War I, he and other monks worked on the Kiev-Lvov railway for 10 months before returning to the monastery. Although Xenophont wished to reach the Great Schema, his young age (40) was an obstacle.

Great Schema tonsure as Kuksha (1931) Xenophont suddenly became gravely ill at age 56, and it was thought that he would not survive. Believed that he was dying, he was tonsured into schema on 8 April 1931 and given the name Kuksha (after a saint whose relics are in nearby caves). Kuksha recovered, and was consecrated a priest-deacon (hierodeacon) on 3 April 1934 and priest-monk (hieromonk) on 3 May of that year.

Death and canonization

In October 1964, Kuksha fell and broke his hip. Lying on the cold ground, he caught a cold and developed pneumonia. Refusing to take medicine, Kuksha died on 24 December 1964 and was buried in the cemetery of the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was glorified as venerable by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1995.