Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (1051): The Monastery of the Caves

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, or Monastery of the Caves, was founded around 1051 when the monk Anthony settled in a cave on the wooded hills south of Kyiv. Under his disciple Theodosius it became the most influential monastery of Kievan Rus, a centre of prayer, learning and chronicle-writing. Rebuilt many times, it remains one of the holiest places of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Origins: a hermit’s cave

The Primary Chronicle tells the story under the year 1051. A priest named Hilarion, who used to pray in a small cave he had dug at Berestove near Kyiv, was chosen that year as Metropolitan of Kyiv. Around the same time a man from Liubech, who had become a monk named Anthony on Mount Athos in Greece, returned to Rus and settled in Hilarion’s cave.

Anthony’s strict life of prayer and fasting attracted followers, who dug more caves and cells. When the community grew to about a dozen monks, they built a small church. Anthony preferred solitude and appointed Varlaam as the first abbot (hegumen), while he himself withdrew to another cave.

Theodosius and the monastic rule

The monastery’s real organiser was Theodosius, a young man from Kursk who had joined Anthony against his mother’s fierce opposition. Elected abbot around 1062, he moved the community above ground and introduced the rule of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople, which regulated worship, work and communal life.

Theodosius was known for humility and charity: he cared for the poor and sick and was willing to criticise princes, including Sviatoslav II, whom he reproached for seizing the throne of Kyiv. He died in 1074 and was canonised in 1108. With the help of princely patrons, the stone Cathedral of the Dormition was begun in 1073 and consecrated in 1089. According to the Patericon, Byzantine master builders and icon painters came from Constantinople to help create it.

A centre of learning

The monastery trained many of the bishops of Rus and became its leading intellectual centre. The monk Nestor, who lived there in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, wrote lives of Boris and Gleb and of Theodosius. He is traditionally credited with compiling the Primary Chronicle around 1113, the main source for the early history of Rus, though modern scholars see the chronicle as the work of several editors.

In the 13th century two monks, Simon and Polycarp, assembled the Kyiv Caves Patericon, a collection of stories about the monastery’s holy men. It became one of the most popular books of medieval Rus.

Myths and facts

Myth: the monks lived in the caves throughout the monastery’s history. Only the earliest community lived underground. From Theodosius’s time the main monastery stood above ground, while the caves served for hermits, prayer and burial.

Myth: the preserved bodies were embalmed. The remains in the caves are generally explained by the cool, dry conditions of the loess hills, which slowed decay. For believers their preservation has long been seen as a sign of holiness.

Myth: Nestor certainly wrote the Primary Chronicle. The attribution comes from later manuscripts. Scholars agree that a monk of the Caves Monastery played a central role, but the chronicle went through several editions, including one made at the Vydubychi Monastery in Kyiv.

Later history

The monastery was badly damaged during the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus, when Kyiv fell in 1240, and again in later raids. It recovered, and in the early modern period it was recognised as a lavra, the highest rank for an Orthodox monastery. Around 1615 its printing house began work, producing religious books for the whole Orthodox world of Eastern Europe.

Most of the present buildings date from the 17th and 18th centuries, in the Ukrainian Baroque style. The Great Lavra Bell Tower, built in 1731–1745 to a design by Johann Gottfried Schädel, rises to about 96 metres. The Dormition Cathedral was blown up on 3 November 1941, during the German occupation of Kyiv, and was rebuilt between 1998 and 2000.

The caves themselves, divided into the Near and Far Caves, still hold the preserved remains of monks, venerated as relics. In 1990 the Lavra was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with Saint Sophia Cathedral.

Key people

• Anthony of the Caves (died 1073), founder and hermit.
• Theodosius of the Caves (died 1074), abbot and organiser of communal life.
• Hilarion, the priest whose cave began the monastery and Metropolitan of Kyiv from 1051.
• Nestor the Chronicler, monk and writer, traditionally linked to the Primary Chronicle.
• Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kyiv when the community was founded; see Yaroslav the Wise.

Timeline

• c. 1051: Anthony settles in Hilarion’s cave near Kyiv.
• c. 1062: Theodosius becomes abbot.
• 1073: Construction of the Dormition Cathedral begins.
• 1074: Theodosius dies.
• c. 1113: The Primary Chronicle is compiled in Kyiv.
• 1240: Mongol forces take Kyiv; the monastery is damaged.
• c. 1615: The monastery’s printing house is founded.
• 1731–1745: The Great Lavra Bell Tower is built.
• 1941: The Dormition Cathedral is destroyed.
• 1990: Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

The Monastery of the Caves shaped the religious and literary culture of Rus more than any other institution. Its monks wrote the chronicles through which we know the early history of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and its caves have drawn pilgrims for nearly a thousand years.