14/27 October: Saint Nikola Sviatosha of the Kiev-Caves Monastery

Saint Nikola was born Sviatoslav (from which he received the diminutive Sviatosha), the eldest son of Prince Davyd Sviatoslavich, at the end of the 11th century. He was the great-grandson of Saint Yaroslav the Wise. The 11th and 12th centuries were the time of much fighting among the Rurikids over the various principalities of the Kievan Rus. At one of the many councils that the Rurikid princes held to try to resolve their disputes, Nikola’s father received the principality of Chernigov, modern-day Ukraine (approximately 150 km from Kiev, 500 km from Smolensk, and 1000 km from Novgorod, Russia - the latter two are both principalities where Prince Davyd ruled at one time or another).

When Nikola became of age, he received the principality of Lutsk - modern-day Ukraine, 500 km from Chernigov - but after only a few years, he lost that city to rivals and returned to his father in Chernigov, where he lived in relative peace for seven or eight years.

Around the year 1107, Nikola entered the monastery of the Kiev Caves founded by his grandfather Sviatoslav Yaroslavich, after whom Saint Nikola was named Sviatoslav at birth. In the monastery, Nikola chose to work in the kitchen, where he performed hard physical labor, including carrying firewood up a hill from the banks of the river Dnieper. Nikola worked so hard that his brothers, Princes Iziaslav and Vladimir, had to beg him to find another obedience in the monastery. Saint Nikola worked so hard and fasted so much that his old-time physician was very worried and often prescribed him various medicines, which the Saint usually refused to take. Saint Nikola outlived his physician by 30 years.

The life of Saint Nikola is very interesting and offers much instruction and inspiration to any Christian, but one of the key moments, in my opinion, was the reluctance of Prince Nikola to engage in the fratricidal conflicts of his time. Undoubtedly, being the eldest son of the Prince of Chernigov, he would have had to continue participating in the bloody squabbles over principalities. Instead, he chose to leave the pursuit of an earthly throne and to kneel before the heavenly one. Later in life, around the year 1142, Saint Nikola traveled to his father’s old town of Chernigov with a peace mission - to try to mediate between his brothers Iziaslav and Vladimir and his cousins Igor and Sviatoslav. This refusal to fight his brothers and the desire to bring peace was something that Saint Nikola may have learnt from his father, Prince David, who, although engaging in the conflicts of his time, did build a church in Chernigov dedicated to Saints Boris and Gleb, which may indicate his sadness over the princely squabbles and a desire for peace among brothers (see our Note from 18 September - substack.com/@phroneo/n…). The church still stands today.

Saint Nikola reposed in the Lord in the year 1143, and his relics rest in the Kiev-Caves Monastery.