Venerable Sisoes the Recluse of the Kiev Near Caves

The Recluses of the Near Caves

The Near Caves, also called the Caves of Saint Anthony, form part of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Saint Anthony relocated there in 1057 after first settling in the Far Caves, and the narrow underground corridors, roughly one to one and a half metres wide, held living cells and chapels carved into the earth.

From the earliest decades of the Lavra, monks who withdrew into strict enclosure in individual cells were venerated as a distinct ascetic class alongside the coenobitic brothers. Sisoes belonged to this tradition of reclusion, and his memory is preserved chiefly through the collective liturgical service to the fathers of the Caves rather than through a separate written life.

The relics of many Caves saints are venerated in the Near Caves, among them Nestor the Chronicler, Kuksha, Alipy, and Agapetus of Pechersk. Sisoes was buried in the same complex.

Joint Commemoration on October 24

On October 24 the Church commemorates three recluses of the Near Caves together: Arethus the Recluse of the twelfth century, a native of Polotsk, likewise called 'radiant in fasting'; Sisoes the Recluse of the thirteenth century, called 'radiant in fasting'; and Theophilus the Recluse of the twelfth to thirteenth century, called 'resplendent in miracles' in the general service to the fathers of the Caves.

Grouping several recluses of the same monastery on a single day reflects the common practice of the Near Caves Paterikon, in which the many zatvorniki are remembered in clusters.