23 July 2025
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today, we remember a great saint — the Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves, the pioneer of ancient Russian monasticism, the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and one of the greatest ascetics of piety in our land.
There is a well-known saying: 'If people knew how wonderful it is to be a monk, everyone would enter a monastery. But if they knew how hard it is, no one would become a monk.'
Monasticism is not a flight from the world but a very hard feat and service. Not detachment but the deepest participation — in the sufferings, pain, and tears of the people of God, for the sake of their and one's own salvation. The Venerable Anthony was exactly like that — a non-indifferent hermit, who feared nobody and nothing except for sin before God.
His life is a vivid example of how, by the unfathomable Providence of God, a single individual can change the course of history and the future of the entire people. A modest monk and a zealous man of prayer, the Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves changed the public conscience by the strength of his prayer and feat. He, who wished only one thing — solitude before God, has attracted an innumerable multitude of followers and disciples for centuries.
It happens in all times: somebody relies upon his cunningness and courage, upon a wonder weapon, upon the help of foreign partners, or a happy chance, while somebody humbly prays under a light of an oil lamp for his God-saved people and already changes history, invisibly for the world, by his faith.
Today is also the name day of Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary — the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, my close friend, whom I wholeheartedly love. He is a man of firm will, ardent heart, and unwavering faith — an archpastor who is sincerely devoted to Christ and His Holy Church.
Vladyka Anthony once said: to be a peacemaker in a time of wars, turmoil, and upheavals is to be subjected to attacks from all sides. He who chooses the 'royal' path, the sole saving middle path, inevitably becomes an object of attacks — both from the right and from the left. So is it happening now: for his unwavering faithfulness to the canonical Church, Vladyka is subjected to bashing both from 'his fellow' hierarchs, who have forgotten such a Christian virtue as gratitude, and from others, who attack Vladyka Anthony for remaining exactly as an Orthodox hierarch should be: brave, loyal, faithful. For preventing, together with his fellow hierarchs, the destruction of the Church of Christ in our Ukrainian land.
May the Lord, through the prayers of the Venerable Anthony, fortify His Church and give Vladyka spiritual and bodily strength, joy in the Holy Spirit, and the support of the people of God.
And may He give all of us faith, firmness, and inner peace.
Happy feast and happy name day, dear Vladyka!
All related news Today, we remember a great saint — the Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves, the pioneer of ancient Russian monasticism, the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and one of the greatest ascetics of piety in our land.
There is a well-known saying: 'If people knew how wonderful it is to be a monk, everyone would enter a monastery. But if they knew how hard it is, no one would become a monk.'
Monasticism is not a flight from the world but a very hard feat and service. Not detachment but the deepest participation — in the sufferings, pain, and tears of the people of God, for the sake of their and one's own salvation. The Venerable Anthony was exactly like that — a non-indifferent hermit, who feared nobody and nothing except for sin before God.
His life is a vivid example of how, by the unfathomable Providence of God, a single individual can change the course of history and the future of the entire people. A modest monk and a zealous man of prayer, the Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves changed the public conscience by the strength of his prayer and feat. He, who wished only one thing — solitude before God, has attracted an innumerable multitude of followers and disciples for centuries.
It happens in all times: somebody relies upon his cunningness and courage, upon a wonder weapon, upon the help of foreign partners, or a happy chance, while somebody humbly prays under a light of an oil lamp for his God-saved people and already changes history, invisibly for the world, by his faith.
Today is also the name day of Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary — the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, my close friend, whom I wholeheartedly love. He is a man of firm will, ardent heart, and unwavering faith — an archpastor who is sincerely devoted to Christ and His Holy Church.
Vladyka Anthony once said: to be a peacemaker in a time of wars, turmoil, and upheavals is to be subjected to attacks from all sides. He who chooses the 'royal' path, the sole saving middle path, inevitably becomes an object of attacks — both from the right and from the left. So is it happening now: for his unwavering faithfulness to the canonical Church, Vladyka is subjected to bashing both from 'his fellow' hierarchs, who have forgotten such a Christian virtue as gratitude, and from others, who attack Vladyka Anthony for remaining exactly as an Orthodox hierarch should be: brave, loyal, faithful. For preventing, together with his fellow hierarchs, the destruction of the Church of Christ in our Ukrainian land.
May the Lord, through the prayers of the Venerable Anthony, fortify His Church and give Vladyka spiritual and bodily strength, joy in the Holy Spirit, and the support of the people of God.
And may He give all of us faith, firmness, and inner peace.
Happy feast and happy name day, dear Vladyka!
