The Kiev-Caves lavra of sts. Anthony and Theodosiu

Monasticism is the foundation and standard of the Orthodox spiritual life, and never was an understanding of it more necessary than today, when so many influences strive to obliterate this spiritual life. The following very general view of the first great Russian monastery will serve as an introduction to a continuing series dealing with the great centers, representatives, and practices of Orthodox monasticism.

ACCORDING TO THE fourth canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, Those who practice monasticism in every city and land must observe silence, attend only to the practice of fasting and prayer, remain without absenting themselves in those places where they have renounced the world; they shall intervene neither in Church nor in secular matters and shall take no part in them, unless entrusted by the bishop of the city, and then only out of necessity.

Orthodox Christian civilization was at its peak when Russia, then the vigorous pagan Kiev-Russ, chose to accept Christianity from Byzantium. Monasticism was then in a flourishing state in Byzantium, the glorious example of the Egyptian and Palestinian deserts having spread far and wide. The Lavra of St. Athanasius on Mount Athos, the Rule of St. Theodore the Studite, were models of monastic life. Monasticism was brought in its purest form by St. Anthony and planted in the new soil of Russia; and soon, from the catacomb-caves of Kiev, rose an abundant harvest of saints. Today, after a thousand years, although undergoing the merciless test of persecution, the Kiev Caves have yet to say their final word to the world before the appearance of Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ our Lord.


The Svensk-Pechersk Miracle-working Icon of the Theotokos with St. Anthony (right) and St. Theodosius (left), painted by St. Alypy.


19th-Century Engraving of the Lavra: Dormition Cathedral, rebuilt in 1698 by Hetman J. Mazepa and destroyed by Communists in 1941.


The Saints of the Great Kiev-Caves Lavra Icon painted on the lid of a reliquary of the Kiev Saints in Holy Trinity Monastery at Jordanville, N.Y., the work of Archimandrite Cyprian P.


As the new Faith spread its roots in daily life, a young man, the future St. Anthony (+1073), left his country in quest of true spiritual life. After wandering through Orthodox principalities in the south, he finally settled on Mt. Athos and became an ascetic of the strictest sort. His abbot, however, seeing his spiritual progress, blessed him to a new obedience: to go back to Russia and bring there the spirit of Mt. Athos.

In Kiev, no monastery satisfied him; complacency and a trace of worldly comfort were apparent in all; the spirit of podvig, which is what his soul desired, was absent. And so, finding a cave in a desolate forest, he dug a little farther and made this his dwelling. Here he entered into the spirit of the early Christian catacombs, which had inspired the daily cycle of Church services, the sacred art of iconography, and above all the witnessing of Christ in martyrdom, and then, with the end of the persecutions, had moved into the Desert; the fragrance of this spirit drew to the humble caves of Anthony a host of local followers...

Thus the brotherhood, the army of "angels on earth," grew. The first abbot of the monastery was St. Varlaam, who was of noble birth; but St. Anthony remained the Starets. St. Theodosius, himself St. Anthony's most obedient disciple, was a model abbot-saint, and it was through his guidance that the brotherhood began to produce a veritable regiment of spiritual giants, models for posterity in every phase of monastic activity. The Orthodox spirituality, complete with the institution of guidance by Startsi, which they lived to the fullest degree, was later gloriously revived by St. Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392) and St. Nil Sorsky (+1508), who defended it, and finally by the Blessed Paissy Velichkovsky (1722-1794) and his followers, ending with Optina, Valaam, and a very few other Russian monasteries.;

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1. For an excellent treatment of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius and their spiritual tradition, see I M.Kontzevich, The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia (in Russian), pp. 87-93.


St. Theodosius (+1074), whose life has come down to us by the hand of the monastery's holy chronicler, St. Nestor, was of noble birth and very early showed a leaning toward monasticism, to the great displeasure of his mother. After many attempts to escape to a monastery, he finally found refuge at St. Anthony's caves, where he gave himself to the severe labor of self-mortification. On becoming abbot he displayed great administrative skill as well as a heart burning with love for his brothers; and they, lit by this sacred flame, were inspired to undertake great ascetic labors.


Sts. Spiridon and Nikodim


ONCE ST. THEODOSIUS adopted the rule of St. Theodore the Studite, the Caves became a Lavra, the largest type of monastery, and every monastic obedience became a fount of flowing Grace. The Pechersky Patericon (13th-century compilation of the Lives of the Kiev-Caves Saints) gives some examples:

St. Longin the gatekeeper was so pure in heart that he was blessed with the gift of reading the thoughts of those who entered and left by his gate. The holy bakers of prosphora or altar-bread, Sts. Spiridon and Nikodim, knew by heart and constantly sang the Psalms of David, thus sanctifying the bread that was to be used for the Holy Gifts, and they had power to command the flame of the stove. St. Prokhor baked a sweet bread out of grass to feed the hungry during famine. The prayer and love of St. Agapit, unmercenary doctor, performed miraculous healings. St. Mark the gravedigger was obeyed by the dead. St. Alypy, an excellent iconographer, the founder of Russian sacred art, approached his obe. dience with such fear of God that once, when he was sick and unable to finish an icon, he beheld an angel completing his work for him.

From its very beginning the Lavra has had an exceptional devotion to the perfect performance of all Church services; in this sphere it became the standard for all of Holy Russia.


St. Pimen the Long-suffering


IN THE ASCETIC and spiritual life the Caves Monastery inherited the great traditions of Near Eastern spirituality, and it in turn reached heights rivalling the Syrian Stylites and the great hermits of the Desert. Its rich spiritual experience, passed down through the ages, shaped the spiritual formation of 1000 years of Holy Russia.

St. Pimen the Long-suffering practiced the virtues of suffering and patience for many years. Being paralyzed, he begged God to preserve him in this state, since otherwise his parents would not allow him to remain in the monastery. He wished to be tonsured a monk, but his pleas went unheard, until one night, when heavenly singing was heard in the cave where he lay, and the brothers discovered that he was tonsured by angels. St. John the Long-suffering, being posessed by lust, buried himself to the waist to fight the demon of sexual passion. To him it is customary to pray for freedom from this passion. Young St. Nikita, the future holy Bishop of Novgorod, despite his Elders warnings, relied on his own judgement and became a recluse, giving himself up to prayer beyond his measure, and soon began to instruct and prophesy, citing, however, only the Old Testament, which revealed him to be in satanic prelest or delusion. The holy startsi barely managed to save him, and he rose thereafter to genuine spiritual heights. A similar incident befell St. Isaac the Recluse, who, when Satan appeared to him in the guise of the Saviour, bowed down and worshipped him. For over two years he was motionless as a corpse, but he regained his senses after being nursed by Sts. Anthony and Theodosius, and became a fool for Christ's sake, the prototype of a long line of Russian representatives of this phase of sanctity.



In 1240 Kiev was conquered by the Tartars, the citizens massacred, and everything burned. Some monks from the Caves boldly became martyrs, others fought or fled. A number of them settled on the mountain of Pochaev, thus laying the foundation for another great Lavra.1 For many centuries, although monks began to live there again, the Caves Lavra did not regain its original greatness. But at the end of the 17th century a new period of spiritual flourishing began,2 culminating in the first half of the 19th century, which saw such spiritual giants as Metropolitan Philaret (Amphiteatrov), Bishop Anthony of Voronezh, the Recluse Dositheus, Starets Partheny, and a number of fools for Christ's sake, headed by Fr. Theophil.3 The great Starets Alexy, of the Goloseyevsky skete attached to the Lavra, died as late as 1917.

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1. See The Orthodox Word vol. 1, no. 3, p. 79.
2. Ibid. vol 2, no. 5, р. 159
3. Ibid. vol 1, no. 4, pp. 144, 153.


After the Revolution of 1917 the Communist plan to exterminate Orthodoxy began with Kiev. The first of Russia's New Martyrs was Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev, who was brutally murdered in the Lavra in 1918; and millions of other martyrs followed. Before surrendering the Lavra to the invading German army in 1941, the Soviets concealed timebombs throughout the grounds of the Lavra, which then exploded one by one. It was possible to save the belfry, but the heart of the Lavra, the Dormition Cathedral (see cover), was destroyed.