The Far Caves and Their Ascetic Tradition
The Far Caves were the original cave dwellings of the Kiev Caves monastery. Around 1051 Saint Anthony of Kiev settled in an old cave in a hill near the site, and this became the Far Caves; the Near Caves were established later, when Anthony relocated around 1057.
Anthony set the pattern of extreme self-denial that shaped the community: by tradition he ate rye bread every other day and drank only a little water, dwelling in seclusion and solitary prayer. The monks of the Far Caves followed this template of strict fasting and cave-dwelling asceticism. Gregory the Faster, whose very epithet marks him as an exemplar of fasting, stands within that tradition.
The Kiev Caves Paterikon, the collection of the lives of the monastery's fathers, was composed between 1203 and 1232 under Archimandrite Akindin II and soon became popular reading throughout Eastern Europe. The anchor sources place Gregory's commemoration within the Paterikon tradition of the Far Caves, though no accessible translation preserves a detailed life for him.