The Near Caves
The Near Caves lie at the Kiev Caves Lavra (Kyiv Pechersk Lavra) in Kiev. They form a network of tunnels of the medieval cave monastery, running to a total length of about 383 metres at depths ranging from roughly 5 to 20 metres. Three underground churches stand within them: the Church of Saint Anthony, the Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple, and the Saint Varlaam Church. The principal temple above the caves is the Baroque Church of the Elevation of the Cross, built between 1700 and 1704.
The caves were founded around 1057, when Saint Anthony, having appointed Saint Varlaam as the first hegumen of the Lavra, withdrew and dug out a new underground cell; from this the Near Caves developed. Two ancient draw-wells discovered beneath the caverns are traditionally attributed to Saints Anthony and Theodosius. The caves preserve dozens of surviving burials of the monastery's saints and served as an active pilgrimage site through the medieval period.
The Founders
Saint Anthony of the Caves (c. 983–1073), baptized Antipas and born at Liubech in the Chernigov principality, took up the monastic life on Mount Athos before returning to Kiev around 1011 at his abbot's instruction. He settled in a cave earlier dug by the presbyter Hilarion and became renowned for strict asceticism, eating rye bread every other day and drinking only a little water. His reputation drew followers, and together they established what became the Kiev Caves Lavra. He is venerated as the founder of monasticism in Kievan Rus'.
Saint Theodosius of the Caves (1009–1074), born at Vasylkiv, co-founded the Lavra with Anthony and brought cenobitic (communal) monasticism to Kievan Rus'. He introduced the monastic rule of Theodore the Studite, obtained from a Greek monk of the Studion Monastery named Michael, and from Kiev it spread through the Ukrainian and Russian churches. His relics were found incorrupt and transferred to the monastery's main cathedral in 1091; his principal feast is May 3.
The Fathers of the Near Caves
Saint Nestor the Chronicler (c. 1056–c. 1114) entered the monastery as a novice around 1073 and was trained under Stephen, the successor of Theodosius. He is credited with the Life of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves and an account of the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, and tradition long attributed the Primary Chronicle to him. He was buried in the Near Caves, and his individual feast is October 27.
Saint Alypius (Alipy) of the Caves (died 1114) was the first icon painter of Kievan Rus', trained under Greek masters from Constantinople. He worked on the mosaics of the Dormition Cathedral and is thought to have contributed to the murals of Saint Michael's Cathedral in Kiev; the Sven Icon of the Theotokos in Moscow is attributed to him. When his body was found, the fingers of his right hand were still formed for the Sign of the Cross. His individual feast is August 17.
The Near Caves also hold the iconographer Gregory, the physician-monk Agapit (Agapetus) of Pechersk, the prince-ascetic Nikolai Sviatosha, and Saint Eustratius, among monks captured during the Polovtsian invasion of 1096, which devastated the monastery. Ilya of the Caves (Ilya Pechersky), a monk canonized in 1643, is likewise buried there; his relics were examined in 1988 and found to belong to a tall man whose bones bore marks of early spinal disease and numerous wounds. Hieromartyr Kuksha and Venerable Pimen are also numbered among these fathers.
The Commemoration
The Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Near Caves is celebrated on September 28. The general commemoration was originally kept on the first Saturday after the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The observance dates to 1670, when restoration work uncovered relics.
Many of the fathers gathered under this feast are also commemorated individually on their own days; Alypius, for example, keeps both his August 17 feast and September 28 as part of this Synaxis. During the Soviet period the bodies of the saints in the caves were left uncovered, owing to the regime's disregard for religion.
Relics & Shrines
The relics of the fathers rest in the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra, where the caves preserve dozens of surviving burials. Among them are the remains of Nestor the Chronicler, Alypius the iconographer, Agapit the physician, Nikolai Sviatosha, Hieromartyr Kuksha, and Ilya of the Caves. Saint Anthony the founder requested that his remains be hidden, and by tradition he was buried in his own cave; no relics of his have ever been discovered.
