In the days of the early princes of Kieff, the heights now occupied by the Lavra were covered with a dense growth of birch forest, and entirely uninhabited.  Later on, one of the hills was occupied by the village of Berostovo, and a palace was built adjoining the tiny ancient “Church of the Saviour in the Birch Forest,” which I have already mentioned.  It was the favorite residence of Prince-Saint Vladimir, and of his son, Prince Yaroslaff, after him.  During the reign of the latter, early in the eleventh century, the priest of this little church, named Ilarion, excavated for himself a tiny cave, and there passed his time in devout meditation and solitary prayer.  He abandoned his cave to become Metropolitan of Kieff.  In the year 1051, the monk Antony, a native of the neighboring government of Tchernigoff, came to Kieff from Mount Athos, being dissatisfied with the life led in the then existing monasteries.  After long wanderings over the hills of Kieff, he took possession of Ilarion’s cave, and spent his days and nights in pious exercises.  The fame of his devout life soon spread abroad, and attracted to him, for his blessing, not only the common people, but persons of distinction.  Monks and worldlings flocked thither to join him in his life of prayer.  Among the first of these to arrive was a youth of the neighborhood, named Fedosy.  Antony hesitated, but at last accepted the enthusiastic recruit.

The dimensions of holy Antony’s cave were gradually enlarged; new cells, and even a tiny church, were constructed near it.  Then Antony, who disliked communal life, retreated to the height opposite, separated from his first residence by a deep ravine, and dug himself another cave, where no one interfered with him.  This was the origin of the caves of Fedosy, known at the present day as the “far catacombs,” and of the caves of Antony, called the “near catacombs.”  The number of the monks continued to increase, and they soon erected a small wooden church aboveground, in the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, as well as cells for those who could not be contained in the caverns.  At the request of holy Antony, the prince gave the whole of the heights where the catacombs are situated to the brethren, and in 1062 a large new monastery, surrounded by a stockade, was erected on the spot where the Cathedral of the Assumption now stands.  Thus was monastic life introduced into Russia.

The venerated monastery shared all the vicissitudes of the “Mother of all Russian Cities” in the wars of the Grand Princes and the incursions of external enemies, such as Poles and Tatars.  But after each disaster it waxed greater and more flourishing.  Restored, after a disastrous fire in 1718, by the zeal of Peter the Great and his successors, enriched by the gifts of all classes, the Lavra now consists of six monasteries,—­ like a university of colleges,—­four situated within the inclosure, while two are at a distance of several versts, and