ANTONIO PECERSKIJ, Saint. — Father of Russian monasticism, b. at Liubecja, near Chernigov, d. at Kiev on 7 May 1073; celebrated by the Russian Church on 10 July. From his youth, A. wished to lead a cenobitic life in his homeland. But he soon felt the need to begin a religious life and, around the year 1028, retired to Mount Athos, in the monastery of Esphigmenon, where he took the monastic habit, changing his secular name of Antipa to that of A. After some time, according to legend, the abbot of Esphigmenon, Theotistus, advised him to return to his homeland to establish monastic life there on the model of Athonite monasticism. A. retired to Kiev, where he led a cenobitic life in a cave, dug beneath Mount Berestov, on the banks of the Dnieper. Once discovered, his cell was immediately besieged by pilgrims, who came to seek his prayers and to ask for miracles.
Several young men, among whom were Nikon, Theodore, and Barlaam, asked to join him. In the hermit’s cave, a church and a refectory were established. The community soon numbered about fifteen members. Then A., desirous of solitude, gave them Barlaam as abbot and retired to another cave. Soon after, Prince Iziaslav ceded the entire Mount Berestov to the monks, and A. had the great consolation of seeing the first stone laid for the “Monastery of the Caves” (Pecerskaia Lavra), which later became so famous. Architects were sent from Constantinople to build II. Meanwhile, A. had to leave Kiev temporarily and retire to Chernigov, since Prince Iziaslav suspected him of favouring his rival Vseslav at the time of the disturbances that followed the death of Iaroslav (1054).
A. and his companions, having lived before the Russian Church officially adhered to the schism of Cerularius, are rightly included in the Slavonic calendar of the Catholic Church.