Twice a year, the Church keeps a feast in honour of the Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God: on 15/28 August and 3/16 May. Most people know the first date as the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The second commemorates the arrival of this sacred image in Rus', established to remember its journey from Constantinople in 1073. This image of the Mother of God has a remarkable history stretching back almost a thousand years. From its days in Constantinople, through its time in Rus’ and the Russian Empire, it has witnessed many events, miracles, and mysteries. Today, we honour the Mother of God before revered copies of this icon. Our monastery houses one such treasured replica.
How the icon found its way to Kiev is truly quite a tale. The chronicler of the Pechersk Patericon preserved it, ensuring future generations would learn of God's wondrous works. This mystery, beyond the reach of reason, comes to us from the lips of four builders to whom the Mother of God herself appeared.
In 1073, these foreign craftsmen — Greeks from distant lands — reached Kiev by a hard mix of waterways, tracks, and paths of the Middle Ages. They told the venerable Anthony and Theodosius how, at dawn, gentle youths came to each of them, saying: “The Queen calls you to Blachernae...”
Without a moment's doubt, they took leave of their families and set out from their homes for Constantinople. Once there, they found the church at Blachernae. And just as they had been told, the Queen was there, with soldiers and helpers around her.
They bowed low, offering their deepest respects. She, welcoming them with a mother’s warmth, said, “I wish to raise a church to Myself in Rus’, in Kiev. I command you to take with you gold enough for three years, and go to build it.”
Awestruck, the architects dared to inquire: “Lady Queen, You bid us go far, to a strange land, where we have never set foot. Whom are we to find when we arrive?” She reassured them: “I send with you the ones who stand here — Anthony and Theodosius.” “And that's when we saw you both standing there!” the architects explained to Anthony and Theodosius back in Kiev, still puzzled. They wondered how the elders had reached Kiev so swiftly, though they seemed worn — not from travel, but from prayer and fasting. From the Queen at Blachernae, all four men heard these words: Anthony and Theodosius will not live long — one will depart straight after blessing you for your work, the other within a year. She stressed once more, “Take, as I have told you, gold in abundance, and set off.” When the builders meekly asked about their pay, she replied, “No one can reward you as I can. I will grant you that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.” (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9) “And I Myself shall come to the church and dwell therein.”
The Mother of God appears to the architects in the Blachernae Church
Realising that the Queen had foreseen all, the heartened architects asked Her what name the church they were to build should bear. After all, during their work, they would surely want to pray to its patron saint, for aid and blessing. “I wish it to bear My name,” they heard in reply. Yet they dared not ask what that name might be. Seeing their reserve and their fear of showing their lack of learning, the Queen said herself, “This church will be of the Mother of God.” As She sent them from the temple, She blessed them with the icon of the Dormition and handed it to them with these words: "Let this icon be its guardian."
And then, as the door shut behind the architects, they looked up and saw a church appear in the heavens. At once, they knew they must build its likeness in Kiev.
The venerable Anthony listened quietly to the Greeks, a gentle smile playing on his lips. He only gazed with longing at the icon they had brought him. At last, he explained that the youths who met them at dawn were angels. The Queen was the Mother of God herself, and the host were heavenly powers. "How She revealed a likeness of our faces, only God knows," the elder mused, his eyes alight with kindness for the builders. "Blessed is your arrival and the fine companion with you — the hallowed icon of the Lady Theotokos."
And so, the will of the Heavenly Queen came to pass. The architects built the Great Church of the Dormition in the Kiev Caves Lavra, taking three years to complete the task. Afterwards, having taken monastic vows at the Kiev Caves Monastery, they prayed within its walls until the end of their lives. Today, their relics lie in the Lavra Caves.
Dormition Cathedral in the Holy Dormition Kiev Caves Lavra
“Hallowed by tradition and the miracle of its building, the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev Caves Monastery became the very measure of what a church should be. The Church authorities, without doubt, insisted that the main design of the cathedral be faithfully kept in other churches,” wrote architectural historian and archaeologist Pavel Rappoport (1913–1988). He also believed that the Kiev Caves Church became the standard for all church-building across Rus’.
But let us turn our attention back to the icon itself, whose story we wish to tell in full.
The Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. Photograph from 1888
On a cypress panel 40 cm wide and 29 cm high is painted the Dormition of the Mother of God: the Theotokos lies upon a bier, and an open Gospel stands at the front. The Gospel’s cover once concealed a gap in the wood. By tradition, the builders visited the church at Blachernae twice, and at their second visit, the Mother of God blessed them to bring to Kiev fragments of the relics of the holy martyrs Artemius, Polyeuctus, Leontius, Acacius, Arethas, James, and Theodore.
The builders laid the relics within the church’s foundation. Later, small fragments of these same seven holy martyrs found a place within the icon itself, sealed in the opening behind the Gospel. At the head of the Theotokos’s bier stand six of the apostles, with Saint Peter holding a censer. At her feet wait five apostles, with Paul kneeling closely. In the centre of the image stands the Saviour. He holds the soul of the Mother of God, swaddled like a newborn child. Around the head of Christ, two holy angels hover.
The image itself sits centrally within a round, gilded shield of embossed silver. Its casing is rich with images: two angels support the holy picture, while above them appear God the Father and the Holy Spirit, the latter in the form of a dove among clouds. All across the round surface gleam stars and precious stones. At the rim, chased cherubim with wings encircle the whole. At different times, several gold or silver casings, each set with many fine gems, were made for this icon. These varied cases were kept in the sacristy of the Dormition Cathedral and changed over the years. The finest, the most resplendent — the diamond-encrusted casing — adorned the icon during the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. Positioned above the Royal Doors in the cathedral, it glowed with the brilliance of the sun.
The Dormition Icon in its golden casing above the Royal Doors of the Dormition Cathedral, Kiev-Caves Lavra. Photograph from the late nineteenth century.
From the seventeenth century until the turbulent days of the early twentieth, the Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God remained in the Holy Dormition Cathedral of Kiev-Caves Lavra. Through the decades, after each liturgy, the icon — set above the Royal Doors — was carefully lowered on straps so that worshippers could come close to offer their prayers.
Time and again, the Mother of God heard these prayers and brought deliverance and aid. When the Tatars besieged Chyhyryn, the faithful of Kiev prayed in the monastery. The synopsis of 1678 tells how, for the first time ever, the icon was carried outside the Lavra. With the blessing of Archimandrite Innocent (Gizel), on the 27th of August, 1677, it was taken in procession around Upper Kiev. The Tatars fled. In the nineteenth century, the miracle-working image again circled the monastery’s walls during the Polish uprising of 1831, and twice during outbreaks of cholera in 1847 and 1866. Each time, the Mother of God brought hope and comfort to those in distress.
It is said that Peter I prayed before this icon on the eve of the Battle of Poltava, and afterwards gave thanks to the Mother of God for the victory.
To mark the victory over Napoleon, a magnificent vigil lamp, comprised of ten coloured lights, was raised before the icon of the Dormition. In 1812, following a procession around the monastery with the icon, this ornate lamp was hung in its place of honour.
“As the first kontakion rises, an unseen hand gently lowers the miraculous icon, along with its hanging lamp. It pauses, suspended amidst the Royal Doors for the duration of the akathist. At the akathist's conclusion, the clergy reverently bestow kisses upon it,” wrote Archpriest Feodor Titov in his “Guide to the Kiev-Caves Lavra.” Each Wednesday, pilgrims and the people of Kiev would make their way to the miracle-working image, drawn to the prayer service with Akathist, a tradition that began in 1812. Year after year, more than a hundred thousand souls passed in front of the icon, many of them enduring a hard journey, just for the chance to bow before this holy treasure of Kiev.
Ruins of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra after the explosion on 3 November 1941
The year 1922 brought great losses and destruction to the Lavra. All the treasures, offered by the faithful through centuries in thanks for God’s help, were now seized by the new regime. The golden cover — the one set on the icon during its most important feasts — disappeared. It is thought that the diamonds once set into it were traded for grain to feed the starving in southern Ukraine and the Volga region. In 1926, the authorities of the Ukrainian SSR issued a decree: the former Kiev-Caves Lavra would become a historic and cultural state reserve, and would be turned into an All-Ukrainian Museum Town.
Over the twentieth century, as in ages past, the ancient monastery faced many trials. Yet the Mother of God protected, and not once did the miracle-working icon come to harm — until 3 November 1941. On that fateful day, a tremendous blast ripped through the Dormition Cathedral, reducing it to rubble.
From there, the trail goes cold. What happened to the icon? No one knows for sure. One account says that in 1942, during the occupation of Kiev, the relics were handed over — from the All-Ukrainian Museum Town, set up by the Bolsheviks on the Lavra’s grounds — to the Museum of Russian Art and the Museum of Western and Eastern Art. Later, the icons from the Lavra, together with other exhibits from Kiev’s museums, were taken to East Prussia, where, on the night of 18 February 1945, a fire broke out on the Wildenhof estate near Königsberg, and all were lost in the flames. Another story claims the wonder-working icon was destroyed in the explosion that brought down the cathedral.
On the feast day of the Archangel Michael, 21 November 1998, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine laid the first stone in the rebuilding of the Exaltation of the Cross Church, destined for revival. Just two years later, he consecrated it. On 24 August 2000, people entered the church once again, and found it as it had been for nearly two centuries.
Exaltation of the Cross Church, Kiev-Caves Lavra
Today, in the Exaltation of the Cross Church of the Lavra, a copy of the Kiev-Pechersk Icon of the Dormition hangs above the Royal Doors, as it once did. Made in the early 19th century, it sits in a gilded round frame. After the Divine Liturgy, the icon is gently lowered on leather straps, as before, allowing the faithful to draw near the sacred image. This faithfully replicates the original in every detail. Its gilded cover, fashioned in 1877, bears the mark of the artisan, M. Bishevsky.
In our monastery, the Icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God resides in the entrance porch of the Church of St Nicholas. Around its edge, sixteen painted figures show the revered ascetics of Kiev-Caves Lavra in half-length. Beneath are reliquaries bearing fragments of their relics.
Icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God with relics of the saints of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the Church of St Nicholas, St Elisabeth Convent, Minsk
The bond with the ancient monastery stands as a quiet reminder that we are all joined by an unseen spiritual thread, no matter where we dwell or in what age we live. The saints of the Kiev caves stand prayerfully before the Mother of God in every age — in Minsk, Moscow, Kiev, in a wood, or out among the fields — anywhere in the world. Yet, when you find yourself before this icon in St Nicholas Church in Minsk, you cannot help but think back to the story of its finding and the building of the church, blessed by the Mother of God, and of the fates of those monk-builders who now rest in the caves of the Lavra. The image remains one of the most important for the Orthodox world; for here we see our Guide, to whom daily prayers warm the heart and bring forth good fruits. Here also are the holy ascetics, for whom prayer for the world became dearer than life itself.
Reliquaries with relics of the holy fathers of Kiev-Caves Lavra
Today the Monastery of the Caves rejoices in bright festival and is glad at the showing forth of the image of the Mother of God. The countless company of the Fathers of the Caves, with them also we, unceasingly cry: Rejoice, O full of grace, glory of the Lavra of the Caves!
Today the Virgin stands unseen in the church and with the company of the Fathers of the Caves prays for us, who in awe honour her boundless mercy to our race, shown forth in her wondrous image, which adorns the Kiev Caves Monastery.
O Most Holy and Pure Virgin Mother of God, our praise and adornment of the Caves, mighty shield of this holy place, true Lady of your chosen inheritance. Receive us, your unworthy servants, as we bring our poor prayer before your wondrous icon with faith and love. Visit our sinful lives with mercy. Light the path of our hearts with the lamp of repentance. Shelter us, burdened with many sorrows, beneath your heavenly joy. Make us worthy always to honour you in peace and reverence in this sacred place, so that, passing through the days of our lives without fault, and with your help, we may reach everlasting gladness in the light of the saints and God-bearing fathers Anthony and Theodosius, and all the holy ascetics of the Caves. Then, with one voice and one heart, may we sing to you with your Eternal Son, his Unoriginate Father, and the Most Holy, Life-Giving, All-Good and Consubstantial Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.
