Reverend Alexy Pechersky, Recluse

Kiev-Pechersk Lavra keeps the memory of dozens of ascetics, whose names were almost erased by time. One of these figures is the monk Alexy, who lived in seclusion in the second half of the XIII century. Canonized four centuries after his death, he left more questions than answers.

The path of this monk is typical of ancient cave monasticism, but this is unique. Refusing to communicate with the outside world, Alexy walled himself up in a tiny cell inside the Near Caves. The sources are stingy in detail: it is only known that his daily practice was built around continuous prayer and extremely strict fasting. No lifetime records were kept — complete solitude excluded witnesses. Rare mentions appear in handwritten church calendars and the text of the canon to the Pechersk saints, where the word “miracle worker” is added to the name of Alexy.

Paradoxically, the main monastery collection – the Kiev-Pechersk Paterik of the 1661 edition – bypassed the ascetic in silence. His biography was later restored literally bit by bit from the monument “Description of Russian Saints”, dated to the end of the XVII-XVIII centuries. There he appears with the laconic mark “Rev. Father Alexy the Recluse”.

Official recognition took decades. The starting point was 1643: then Metropolitan Peter Mohyla established a joint celebration for a whole host of Pechersk saints. Directly to the face of locally venerated saints Alexis was listed in 1675. Soon after this event, his incorruptible relics were found. The remains were placed in the Near Caves near the burial of Savva Pechersky. On a detailed map of the dungeons, created in 1703, this place is already clearly marked. In the documents of the end of the XVIII century, the shrine is described as the relics of “Rev. Alexis, resting in seclusion.”

The transition to the church level took place after a series of decrees of the Holy Synod in 1762, 1775 and 1785. From that moment the name of the recluse was firmly entrenched in all-Russian saints. Today his relics are still open to pilgrims in the Lavra caves.