Venerable Arsenius the Lover-of-Labor of the Kiev Far Caves

Life and Asceticism

The tradition recorded in the synaxarion presents Arsenius as a model of monastic toil. Living within the cave monastery founded on the banks of the Dnipro, he combined ceaseless labor with continual prayer and refused to sit idle. His fasting was severe: he is said to have eaten only once a day, after sunset.

For this humility and love of labor, the synaxarion relates, he was granted the gift of wonderworking. Few further biographical particulars survive, and his epithet "the Lover-of-Labor" (also rendered "the Diligent") distinguishes him within the long roll of Kiev Caves ascetics.

The Kiev Caves Monastery

The community in which Arsenius lived, the Kiev Caves Lavra (Kyiv Pechersk Lavra), had been established around 1051 by Anthony of Kiev, a monk formed on Mount Athos who settled in a cave above the Dnipro River. Theodosius of Kiev succeeded him and oversaw the construction of the Dormition Cathedral, while the prince of Kiev granted the community its hill. From its origins the monastery became a foremost center of Orthodox monasticism in the lands of Rus'.

Its underground galleries are divided into the Near Caves, where Anthony withdrew in 1057, and the Far Caves, the older settlement to which later passages were added. Carved through loess, the narrow corridors served both as cells and as burial places for generations of monks.

Relics and Commemoration

Arsenius is counted among the saints whose relics repose in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius. On August 28 the Church keeps the Synaxis of the Holy Fathers of the Kiev Caves whose relics rest there, a collective commemoration of the many monks and hierarchs of the community, each of whom also has an individual feast. Arsenius is remembered individually on May 8.