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Our Venerable Father, Anthony of the Kyiv Caves Monastery

St. Anthony was born at Lubech, near Chernihov, a city approximately 100 miles north of Kyiv in Ukraine. He heard the call to serve God as a monk and lived first as an anchorite (a solitary monk attached to a church), and then became a hermit attached to a monastery on Mt. Athos. After several years there he returned to his homeland and began living in a cave in Kyiv, overlooking the right bank of the Dnipro River.
His way of life attracted a number of followers who submitted to his authority and by 1051 A.D. he had established a brotherhood in the caves, practicing monasticism after the model first established by St. Anthony the Great in Egypt in the 4th Century.
The Monastery of the Caves (Lavra) went on to become one of the most influential monasteries in the Slavic Orthodox world, and indeed, in the entire Orthodox world. He reposed in the Lord in 1073 A.D. and was, with St. Theodosius, one of the first saints canonized by the Kyivan-Rus bishops.

Through the prayers of our holy patron Anthony,
O Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Tropar of our Venerable Father, Anthony of the Kyiv Caves Monastery
(Tone 4) Having left earthly vanity and renounced the world, you followed Christ in accordance with the Gospel. And having lived an angelic life, you arrived at the calm haven of Mount Athos. From there, with the blessing of the fathers, you came to the mountain of Kyiv, and there ended your life in ascetic struggle. You enlightened your fatherland and showed a multitude of monastics the path to the heavenly kingdom, bringing them to Christ. Pray to Him, O Venerable Anthony, that He save our souls.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.Both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Kondak of our Venerable Father, Anthony of the Kyiv Caves Monastery
(Tone 8) Surrendering yourself to God whom you loved from your youth above all, you lovingly followed Him with your whole soul. Accounting the material things of the world as vanity, you made a cave in the earth and in it you struggled nobly against the snares of the invisible enemy. You illumined all the earth like a bright, radiant sun, and therefore you passed over, rejoicing, to the heavenly dwelling place. Standing now before the Throne of the Master together with the angels, remember us who honour your holy memory, that we may cry out to you: Rejoice, O Anthony, our venerable father.