Historical Context
Mercurius belonged to the monastic community of the Kiev Caves Lavra (Kyiv Pechersk Lavra), whose origins trace to 1051, when Anthony of the Caves settled in a cave in the Kyiv hills. That first cave complex, later extended with corridors and a church, became known as the Far Caves, named for Saint Theodosius; in 1057 Anthony moved to a new cave that became the Near Caves.
The Far Caves hold the relics of approximately sixty monastic fathers, who are venerated individually on their own days and together as an assembly. Dated entries among them, such as Archimandrite Dositheus (died 1218) and Archimandrite Acindynus (died 1235), show that the community there spanned the medieval period into Mercurius's own fourteenth century, an era of external political and military pressure that culminated in the burning of the monastery by forces of the Golden Horde under Edigey in 1416, a generation after his lifetime.