Feodosiy of the Caves

The story of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) begins with a cave on the Dnipro slopes near the princely village of Berestove, dug for prayer by the priest Ilarion. When Ilarion became metropolitan, the monk Antoniy, back from Mount Athos, settled there. The chronicle dates the monastery’s founding to 1051: a community gathered around Antoniy, living and praying in underground cells.

The young Feodosiy, born in Vasyliv (today Vasylkiv) and raised in Kursk, joined Antoniy in the caves against his mother’s will. Around the 1060s the brethren chose him as abbot. Prince Iziaslav granted the monastery the hill above the caves, and Feodosiy moved the community to the surface, building a church and cells and adopting the Studite rule of Constantinople to organize monastic life. The Caves Monastery became the school of monasticism for all of Rus’.

The abbot was not afraid to stand up to princes — he condemned Sviatoslav Yaroslavych for driving his brother Iziaslav out of Kyiv. In 1073 Feodosiy laid the foundations of the stone Dormition Church, but did not live to see it finished: he died in 1074 and was buried in his cave (today’s Far Caves). In 1091 his relics were solemnly transferred to the Dormition Cathedral. His Life was written by Nestor the Chronicler.

The Dormition Cathedral, blown up in 1941, was rebuilt in the early 2000s. Together with St Sophia’s, the Lavra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990, and its Near and Far Caves — the monastery’s underground heart — are open to pilgrims.