medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
We know about the Ukrainian monastic founder Anthony of Kyiv (; d. 1073; also Anthony of Pechersk, Anthony of the Caves) chiefly from the late eleventh-century, Slavic-language Life of St. Theodosius of Kyiv by St. Nestor of Pechersk (Nestor the Chronicler) and from mentions in the _Russian Primary Chronicle_ (begun by Nestor). A native of Lubec in the Chernigov region north of Kyiv, he made an early pilgrimage to Mt. Athos and returned there in mid-life, entering the Esphigmenou monastery in about 1028. Later Anthony became a solitary in a cave at Pechersk, then outside of Kyiv but now part of that city. After he had attracted a small number of followers, he withdrew to a cave farther away, continuing to act as spiritual father to his little eremitic community but leaving day-to-day leadership first to St. Barlaam of Kyiv and then, after Barlaam had been called to lead a new monastery, to St. Theodosius of Kyiv.
Anthony, whose relics have never been found, is said to have been buried in his cave, the nucleus of what would be called the monastery's Far Caves. His cult was immediate. In the Ukrainian Orthodox churches and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, all of which follow the Julian calendar, Theodosius is celebrated on 7. May (= 20. May in the Gregorian Calendar). In the Roman Martyrology, which follows the Gregorian calendar, today (7. May) is Theodosius' day of commemoration.
St. Anthony of Kyiv as depicted (at right, flanking the Theotokos and Christ Child; at left, St. Theodosius of Kyiv) in the late thirteenth-century Icon of Sven (before 1288) in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=182
Herewith a few English-language accounts of the Kyiv (Kiev)-Pechersk Lavra (a.k.a. the Monastery of the Caves):
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Monastery_of_the_Kiev_Caves
http://symeon-anthony.info/pilgrimage/lavra.html
http://tinyurl.com/d8gfgj
Best,
John Dillon
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