Venerable Anatolius of Kyiv Cave

Anatoly the Recluse (12th century) was a monk of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. A saint of the Russian Church, he is venerated as a venerable father, with feast days (according to the Julian calendar) on July 3 and September 28 (Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Pechersk Near Caves). No biographical details of the venerable Anatoly have survived. The Teraturgima by the cathedral monk Athanasius (Kalnofoysky) (1638) refers to him as an elder and wonderworker. Local veneration of Anatoly the Recluse began in the late 17th century, when Pechersk Archimandrite Varlaam (Yasinsky), the future Metropolitan of Kiev, established the feast of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Near Caves. In the service to the synaxis of saints composed at that time, Anatoly the Recluse is mentioned in the second troparion of the ninth ode, alongside the venerable Spyridon and Nicodemus. According to Filaret (Gumilevsky), Anatoly practiced asceticism alongside these saints in the 12th century. The Description of Russian Saints, known from late 17th-century manuscripts, includes Anatoly among the saints of the city of Kiev. General church veneration began in the second half of the 18th century, following the Holy Synod's authorization to include the names of several Kiev saints in the general church calendar. The feast of the venerable Anatoly on July 3 was established in honor of his name day, shared with Saint Anatoly of Constantinople.