Vasiliy and Feodor

Vasiliy (Basil) and Feodor (Theodore) were monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, in the late eleventh century. Almost nothing is recorded of their family origins, places of birth, or the years of their entry into monastic life. They are known primarily from the Kiev Caves Patericon, a thirteenth-century compilation of earlier monastic stories associated with the community founded by Saints Anthony and Theodosius. Feodor occupied a cave cell and, while digging, uncovered a cache of gold, silver, and precious vessels that had apparently been hidden in earlier times. The discovery provoked a severe spiritual struggle: thoughts of abandoning the monastery, returning to the world, and living in wealth assailed him.

His fellow monk and close companion Vasiliy, who lived nearby, perceived Feodor’s turmoil and counselled him persistently against avarice. Vasiliy reminded him of the monastic vows of poverty and of the transience of earthly riches. Strengthened by this friendship and by prayer, Feodor resolved to remain in the monastery. Tradition holds that the treasure was either given for the needs of the community or that it vanished after the decision was made, so that it could no longer be a snare.

News of the gold nevertheless reached Prince Mstislav, son of Grand Prince Svyatopolk II Iziaslavich of Kiev. The prince, desiring the treasure, summoned the two monks and demanded that they surrender it. When they declared that they no longer possessed it, they were subjected to torture. Feodor was hung upside down and a fire kindled beneath him; he died under this torment. Vasiliy was then pierced by an arrow shot by the prince himself. The Patericon relates that Mstislav was afterwards wounded by an arrow during military operations near Vladimir-Volynsky, recognized the wound as corresponding to the arrow with which he had killed Vasiliy, confessed the injustice, and died. The monks’ deaths are traditionally placed in 1098, shortly before the prince’s own death in 1099.

The relics of Vasiliy and Feodor rest in the Near Caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. They are venerated as venerable martyrs in the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially in the Ukrainian and Russian traditions. Their principal feast is kept on 11 August, and they are also remembered on 28 September in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Near Caves. Their story has long been used in Orthodox spiritual writing as an example of victory over the passion of greed and of fidelity to the monastic calling even unto a martyr’s death. Beyond the Patericon narrative, liturgical commemorations, and the correlation with the historically attested death of Mstislav, few additional details about their lives can be independently verified.