Gregory of the Kiev Caves

Venerable Martyr Gregory of the Kyiv Caves, the wonderworker, was a monk of the Caves Lavra and died drowned in the Dnieper in 1093, by order of Prince Rostislav, whose death in water he had foretold. He is buried in the Near Caves (those of Anthony). He is remembered on 8 January (21 January on the new calendar), on 28 September, in the synaxis of the venerable fathers of the Near Caves, and on the second Sunday of Great Lent, in the synaxis of all the venerable fathers of the Caves.

Life

He was tonsured a monk by Saint Theodosius, about 1064. He was a disciple of Theodosius, and in the manuscript redaction of the Paterikon of Joseph Trizna the year of his coming to the Caves monastery is given, 1064, but the origin of the date is not known. He was a great lover of books and gathered a rich library, which he afterwards sold and gave the money to the poor. He was very pious and became renowned above all for the gift of prayer. He had great power against demons, and so they rose against him and tried in every way to hinder him from raising his fervent prayers to the Lord. But, knowing Gregory's power, on meeting him they cried from afar: "O Gregory, you drive us out by your prayer".

From the life of Saint Nikita, bishop of Novgorod, it is known that he was one of the most authoritative elders of the Caves. In his cell there was nothing but books, which he sold too after someone tried to rob him, and with the money he ransomed the thieves held in prison. The thieves, in amazement at the miracle that had happened to them, repented and entered the service of the Caves monastery of their own will.

Martyrdom

Once, going to the Dnieper for water, he met on the road the wife of the prince of Pereyaslav, Rostislav Vsevolodovich, who was going to Trepol (now a village in the Obukhiv district, Kyiv region) to block the way of the Polovtsians. The soldiers began to mock the monk, who tried to teach the soldiers and called them to repentance. Venerable Gregory foretold their swift death, for which, tying a stone around his neck, they drowned him in the Dnieper. On 26 May 1093 the Russian armies suffered a crushing defeat on the river Stugna. Prince Rostislav was mortally wounded and drowned in the river. When Vladimir Monomakh ordered his brother to be buried in the cathedral of Saint Sophia, on the wall of the altar of the side chapel of Saint George, near the tomb of the Yaroslavichi, an accusing inscription appeared: "In the month of May, on the twenty-⁠fifth day, Gregory was drowned by the prince". According to the Caves Paterikon, the body of Venerable Gregory was found, on the third day after his martyrdom, by miracle in his locked cell.

Relics

Sometimes the wonderworker Gregory is regarded as the same as Gregory the composer of canons, perhaps the one who arranged the services for Prince Vladimir, for Venerable Theodosius of the Caves and for the translation of the relics of Saints Boris and Gleb. But the Caves Paterikon distinguishes the two monks. The relics of Venerable Gregory rest in the Near Caves, beside those of Venerable Nicholas Svyatosha. Medical and anthropological studies of the holy relics of the Caves Lavra showed that he died at the age of fifty to sixty and was 172 centimetres tall.