| |
The Kiev Monastery of the Caves (Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra) was founded
about the middle of the eleventh century by a monk Antony who was later
canonized. He decided to devote his life to prayers and to live as a hermit.
Antony found that the ideal place for this new home would be one of the hills
along the right bank of the river Dnieper, located to the south of the village
of Berestovo, once the residence of the Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavich. The
hill was covered with thick woods and dotted with caves that nature had made in
the cliffs, and from them came the name of the monastery. Pechersk comes from
"Pechery" - caves, and his piety soon became well known and many
decided to follow his example. One of the first to join him was co-founder of
the monastery Feodosii (Theodosius), who was also canonized. Feodosii was a
learned man and very good organizer. He did much to spread the influence of the
Monastery and to fortify "The Christian universal religion. "Feodosii
was one of the first opponents of any influence that Rome eventually exercised
over the Russian orthodoxy. He came out openly against Roman-Catholic dogmas
and repeatedly urged Prince Izyaslav to beware of their teachings and customs.
. Obviously the Prince listened to Feodosii who received a large piece of land
further to the north west from the caves from Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich, and
it was here that the most important edifices were built. The first church built
was dedicated to the Virgin and it was completely under ground.
The importance of the Monastery grew rapidly and through the centuries
became not only the center of Russian Orthodox religion but also of education,
culture and the arts. Gradually there was built a large complex or assemblage
of churches, refectories, dormitories, schools, workshops, and even factories.
Many monks practiced various crafts or were engaged in icon or fresco painting.
Others translated and copied books until 1615 when the Monastery received its
first printing shop. Through its rich history the Monastery had as simple monks
several of the best scholars, artists, writers and chroniclers, some of them of
princely origin, such as the first Abbot Varlaam, son of a boyar. It was in
this monastery that Nestor wrote his imposing work, which historically
connected his people to the civilized world. Here painted the famous and first
known Russian iconographer Alimpii, also a simple monk, who was one of the
young Russians trained by the Greeks. The Lavra particularly distinguished
itself as a publisher of books, religious and secular, for all Orthodox Slavic
peoples and contributed to the dissemination of knowledge more than any other
force. But many others came to the Monastery because they wanted to retire from
society and live in solitude for purely religious motives. These anchorites
chose the caves, where they were walled in their cells, with only a small
opening through which they received bread and water. A Legend says that in the
twelfth century one of them Ioann (John) in Pain remained alive in his cell for
almost thirty years though he was buried up to his neck all the time. He was
left in the same position after he died. Dry and cool air in the caves, with
minimal changes in temperature prevented decaying and in time mummified the
bodies. Roses and flowers brought inside could stay fresh for months. The same
phenomenon I saw in the caves of the Pechora Monastery near Pskov. Thousands of
pilgrims flocked here each year in search of spiritual guidance and comfort,
from all parts of Russia. For millions of Orthodox the Lavra was their
religious center, and for centuries remained the cradle of Eastern /Slav
civilization. At the same time with the coming of feudalism in Russia, the
Lavra grew into a powerful and rich establishment and as this was the case with
most religious institutions throughout the world, became the bastion of the
official religion of the state and an element of the government. With this
came, unfortunately, gradual decline of religious zeal and moral values of a
large part of the clergy. The rise of Moscow overshadowed the Lavra, though it
remained until the revolution one of the main religious centers. In 1926 the
Bolsheviks turned the Kiev Monastery of the Caves into a museum and
expropriated the buildings, confiscated the property and evicted the monks.
Thus a hostel became an office of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, a dormitory
was turned into Technical Art School, and the administrative buildings were
taken for the Kiev Theatrical Institute. This process continued until 1961 when
the last monk was chased out of the Monastery. The churches that once made the
glory of Kiev were neglected and some of them dismantled. Then in the late
fifties started their restoration. Their doors were reopened as Kiev's main
cultural and tourist attraction and of course, serving now not as a house of
God, but also to fight his presence.
The most important and venerated church in the Monastery was the Cathedral
of Assumption (Uspensky Sobor). Its foundations were laid in 1073 and it was
completely finished and decorated by 1078. For unknown reasons, it was
consecrated only in 1089.Originally the cathedral was built also in the form of
a Greek cross, similar to the Saint Sophia in Kiev, but considerably smaller.
However it was the Cathedral of the Assumption that became one of the most
representative monuments of the late eleventh and early twelfth century Russian
architectural traditions, and as such it had a strong influence on the later
church architecture in the Vladimir- Suzdal area. The cathedral was built of
stone and bricks. The three pairs of piers divided it into three aisles, as was
the case with most other churches of that period. What set is aside from the
others was it's single large cupola placed over the central square, the
entrance to the galleries located in the western square above the narthex was
from the outside. The cathedral was richly decorated with mosaics and frescoes.
The chronicles specifically mentioned Alimpii as one who took part in this work
along with Greek masters. The cathedral was damaged by fire several times. In
1723-1729 the cathedral was completely renovated and its outside turned into
Ukrainian baroque style with seven pear-shaped cupolas on its top. Peter the
Great gave the Cathedral a new gilded iconostasis into which several old icons
brought from Constantinople were framed. Tragically, this extraordinary
monument was completely destroyed during World War Two.
The best preserved are the churches above the two main gates to the Lavra.
Both are now in the form of the Ukrainian baroque style. The first is the
single-domed Trinity church, built in the early twelfth century and rebuilt in
1720-1729. The facade was decorated at that time with very rich stucco molding
ornamentation, the work of Vasily Stefanovich, a man with a typically Serbian
name. Though his designs were repeated, the original moldings were destroyed
when the church was restored at the end of the nineteenth century. Its present
appearance dates from 1958, after Soviet masters did some cleaning and painting
work. The inside of the church was decorated with religious paintings by a well
known Monastery iconographer Alimpii Galik and his assistants at the time when
it was re-built. The second is the All Saints church built at the very end of
the seventeenth century above the so-called Steward's Gate. It has five cupolas
and is one of the most striking examples of Ukrainian baroque architecture.
Please go to Kiev history for a
summary history of the city and of the monastery as well as numerous
photographs.
|
|
