ANTHONY THE PECHERSKY, Saint. - Father of Russian monasticism, b. at Liobecia, near Tchernigov, d. at Kiev on 7 May 1073; celebrated by the Russian Church on 10 July. From his youth, A. wished to lead an eremitical life in his homeland. But he soon felt the need to be initiated into the religious life and, around the year 1028, he withdrew to Mount Athos, to 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 the legend, the hegumen of Esphigmenon, Theotistos, advised him to return to his homeland to establish the monastic life there on the model of Athonite monasticism. A. withdrew to Kiev, where he led an eremitical 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 commend themselves to his prayers and to ask him for miracles.
Some young men, among them Nicon, Theodore, 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 hegumen and withdrew to another cave. Very soon the Kniaz Iziaslav ceded the whole of Mount Berestov to the monks, and A. had the great consolation of seeing the foundation stone laid of the "Laura of the Caves" (Pecerskaia Lavra), which later became so famous. Architects were sent from Constantinople to build it. Meanwhile A. had had to abandon Kiev temporarily and withdraw to Tchernigov, since the Kniaz Iziaslav suspected him of favoring his rival Vseslav, at the time of the troubles that followed the death of Yaroslav (1054).
A. and his companions, having lived before the Russian Church had officially adhered to the schism of Cerularius, rightly appear in the Slavic calendar of the Catholic Church.
Bibliography6 works
Martino Jugie