Sts Antony and Theodosius Pechersky

Antony and Theodosius of the Caves of Kiev stand at the beginning of great native Russian monasticism. Antony was born near Chernigov in 983 and from early on was drawn toward the life of the desert. After first trying solitude in his own land, he went to Mount Athos, where he lived for years under obedience and learned the hard school of the hermit. At last his abbot sent him back to Russia with a blessing and a prophecy that he would become the father of many monks. Antony returned unwillingly, found little peace in the prince-founded monasteries around him, and finally settled in a cave beside the Dnieper at Kiev. There he lived on bread, vegetables, and water, cultivated a little patch of ground, gave away what visitors brought him, and sought hiddenness. Hiddenness, however, was denied him in the way so often seen in the saints. Men came for counsel, then for life with him. Caves were enlarged, a chapel and common room were dug out, and when the little band outgrew the hillside a monastery and church rose above it. This life loves the contrast: other houses had been founded by princely money; this first great Russian monastery was built by tears, fasting, and prayer. Antony himself remained more lover of solitude than ruler.

He handed direction to others, withdrew for a time, returned, and died in 1073 in the cave that had become the cradle of a people’s monastic life. Theodosius gave that beginning its lasting shape. Born to well-to-do parents, he shocked his family by joining labourers in the field and later by choosing humble work, even learning to bake the bread for the Holy Mysteries. At last he entered the Caves, and when he became abbot he turned the loose gathering of disciples into a true common life. He enlarged the buildings, imposed the Studite rule and discipline, and insisted that prayer and bodily austerity could not be separated from mercy. A hospital and hostel were founded; food was sent regularly to prisoners; the monks were taught to serve not only their own souls but the suffering Christ in the poor. Nor did Theodosius hide from the world’s wounds. He counselled lay people of every rank, defended the oppressed, and even rebuked princes when justice was violated. This life presents him as a man who could hold together contemplation, liturgical life, common discipline, and tenderness for ordinary human need. Together these two saints gave Russian Christianity a pattern that endured. Antony gave the original cave, silence, poverty, and attraction of holiness; Theodosius gave community, order, charity, and the pastoral breadth that let the monastery become a fountain of life for a whole people.