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Stealing Ukrainian Monasteries
The Case of the Pechersk Laura
Translation Version: Pechersk Lavra
Legal cases are established on facts presented as evidence and sometimes with what is considered circumstantial evidence. Circumstantial evidence is often considered as fact that judges and courts can draw conclusions from. So, let’s look at the Case of the Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv (also known as the Monastery of the Kyiv Caves and a UNESCO World Heritage Site) from that perspective.
First, we must know about the founders of this lavra. St. Anthony of Kyiv (also known as St. Anthony of the Caves) was born in 983 A.D. in Liubech which was an important town in the Chernihiv Region of what is now Ukraine. He became a monk on Mt. Athos and was ordered by his Igumen to return to Kyiv in 1051 to attract followers to monastic Christianity. He established the Near Caves of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in 1051–52, appointed St. Varlaam as abbot and dug the Far Caves of the lavra around 1055 under the patronage of Iziaslav I of Kyiv, Grand Prince.
Later, after St. Varlaam’s departure to start another monastery, St. Anthony appointed St. Theodosius of Kyiv as abbot who instituted community monasticism instead of St. Anthony’s hermitic monasticism. All monks under both types of monasticism swore oaths of poverty, service and asceticism. The importance of the evidence…
