Life and Asceticism
Mardarios lived during the thirteenth century at the Kiev Caves monastery, where he enclosed himself as a recluse in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius. The sources describe him pursuing spiritual perfection through prayer, fasting, and obedience.
His defining trait was an extreme renunciation of possessions. The synaxarion relates that he did not wish to have so much as a furnished cell or any single belonging, keeping only the one robe he wore. An inscription placed over his relics recorded that his cell contained nothing.