St. Theodosius of the Caves

St. Theodosius of the Caves was born about 1029 at Vasilkov near Kiev and, from his youth, longed for a life of humility and labor for God, working in the fields with the peasants and wearing coarse clothing against the wishes of his well-born mother. Seeking the monastic life, he came to St. Anthony in the caves above the Dnieper and was received among the first disciples of the growing community.

Chosen as abbot, Theodosius gave the Kiev Caves Monastery its enduring form. Where Anthony had lived the solitary and ascetic path, Theodosius introduced the cenobitic, or common, life, adopting the rule of the Studite monastery of Constantinople, with its ordered round of prayer, work, and shared poverty. Gentle yet firm, he cared for the poor, admonished princes to justice, and made the monastery a center of holiness and learning for all the land of the Rus'. He died on 3 May 1074, and is honored, with St. Anthony, as a founder of Russian monasticism.