Caves

One of the amazing features of the Pskov-Pechersky monastery is the holy caves. With them the monastery began six hundred years ago. Underground labyrinths stretch under churches, cells, gardens, fields for many kilometers. Once the first monks settled here. They built temples underground,  according to the ancient biblical custom, they buried the deceased brothers in the sand niches. Only later, when the number of monks increased, the monastery began to settle on the surface as well.
Since ancient times, caves have come to be called the “God-built”, that is, built, created by God. This name did not appear due to the natural origin of the caves - subsequently the monks themselves significantly expanded the branching of underground corridors. And from what was noticed: the bodies of the deceased brought here immediately cease to emit a smell peculiar to a dead body.

To our time, over fourteen thousand people have been buried in caves - monks, Pechersk residents, soldiers who defended the monastery during the years of medieval enemy raids. Coffins are not buried here, but simply stacked on top of each other in niches and grottoes. But visitors, wandering with candles through the long labyrinths, are always struck by the freshness and purity of the cave air.

"God even desires, conquers the nature of order" - there is such a church hymn. It translates roughly like this: "If God pleases, the laws of nature are conquered." And unbelieving tourists leave the caves very surprised, but still refusing to believe their eyes, or rather, their sense of smell. For those of them who are more educated, there is nothing left but to quote thoughtfully: “There is much in the world, friend Horatio, which our sages did not even dream of!”

Many stories are connected with these dungeons. One of the relatively recent events took place in 1995, when Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin arrived in Pechory. He was shown the monastery and, of course, the cave treasurer, Archimandrite Nathanael. Slender, gray-haired, in outworn shoes and holes in his cassock, by lighting the path with a candle, led the head of state and his retinue through the caves.
Finally, Boris Nikolayevich realized that something incomprehensible was happening around him, and expressed surprise at the fact that there was no smell of decay, although the coffins with the dead were in niches, so you could even touch them with your hand.
Father Nathanael explained to the president:
“This is a miracle of God.”

The tour continued. But after some time Boris Nikolaevich repeated the same question in bewilderment.
“That's what the Lord arranged,” Father Nathanael answered shortly again. A few minutes passed, and the president, whilst leaving the caves, whispered to the elder:
“Father, tell me the secret. What are you smearing them with?”
“Boris Nikolayevich,” answered Father Archimandrite then, “are there any among you who smell bad?”
- Of course not!
- So do you really think that someone dares to smell foully surrounded by the King of Heaven?
They say that Boris Nikolayevich was completely satisfied with this answer.
In the days of official atheism, and today, many have tried and are trying to somehow explain this mysterious property of the caves. What did they not come up with! Starting with the fantastic version that came to Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin's mind: the monks smear fourteen thousand deceased with incense daily. And up to the hypothesis about the unique features of local sandstones, supposedly absorbing any odors. This last version has always been the most popular. In Soviet times, it was usually voiced in front of tourists.

The old monks told how the Great Viceroy of the Pskov-Pechersky monastery, Archimandrite Alipiy, who managed the monastery during the years of Khrushchev’s persecution, if he had to lead delegations of high-ranking Soviet workers to the caves, every time he grabbed a handkerchief, richly moistened with cologne. When visitors began to talk about sandstones and the absorption of smells, Father Alipiy simply put his handkerchief under their nose, drunk with stunning Soviet perfumes. He also suggested paying attention to fragrant flowers in vases near the graves of revered elders.
“Well,” he asked, “do you want to come to terms with the fact that you don’t understand at least something in this life?” And if you visit when a dead person is brought into the caves, and every time the smell of decay completely disappears, what would you say? Would you have thought of something too?
Caves stretch for many kilometers, and what is their true length, no one in the monastery knew, not even the governor. We suspected that this was known only to Father Nathanael and Archimandrite Seraphim, who lived the longest in the monastery.
Somehow my then very young friends, Hieromonk Rafail and Nikita, got the keys to the old fraternal cemetery. This part of the cave labyrinth has not been buried since 1700, and the passage into it was closed with an iron door. Lighting the way with candle lights, the monks walked under low arches, looking around curiously. On the right and left in the niches were decks scattered from time, in which they had previously been buried in Russia. The bones of the predecessors of Father Nikita and Father Raphael, the brothers of the monastery, turned yellow. After some time, the rangers came across a completely preserved closed deck. Curiosity prevailed, and kneeling down, the monks carefully lifted the heavy lid.

In front of them lay the abbot. His body was preserved completely intact, with waxy yellowish fingers clutching a large carved cross on his chest.
Only the face was somehow green. Having recovered from their first surprise, the hieromonks realized that the reason for such a strange phenomenon was the decayed green veil, which, according to ancient tradition, covered the face of a deceased priest. For several centuries, the fabric turned into dust.

One of the monks blew: a green cloud soared into the air, and before the eyes of friends the face of the elder untouched by decay was revealed. It seemed, for a moment, he would open his eyes and look sternly at the curious monks who dared to violate his holy peace. The hieromonks, realizing that in front of them in imperishable relics lies a saint unknown to the world, they were so frightened of their insolence that they quickly closed the deck cover and rushed back to the top.

We novices often went to caves if there were any serious problems to ask the great ascetics for help. We knelt down and, touching the coffin with our hand, asked the elder for intercession and admonition. And help was not long in coming. We especially pestered with our requests the elder Simeon, who died in 1960 and was recently glorified as a saint. And also the Great Viceroy of Archimandrite Alipius. Yes, and other elders who, one after the other after the labors of earthly life, went to God with their souls, and into caves with their bodies.
Another significant difference and special ministry of the Pskov-Pechersky monastery opened only in the XX century.

Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, Optina Desert, Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Solovki, Valaam, Sarov were famous not only in Russia, but throughout the Christian world. And the Pskov Pechora for many centuries remained nothing more than a provincial monastic monastery.

However, in the post-war years, when the Church began to rise from the post-revolutionary ruin, it suddenly turned out that this provincial monastery was chosen by God to carry out its special and great ministry.
Suddenly, it turned out that the only monastery in Russia that never, even in Soviet times, never closed, and therefore preserved the precious continuity of monastic life, was precisely the Pskov-Pechersk monastery. Until 1940, the monastery was located in Estonia, and after its accession to the USSR, the Bolsheviks simply did not have time to deal with it - the war began. Later, during the Khrushchev persecution of the Church, the Great Viceroy Archimandrite Alipiy managed to resist the gigantic state machine and did not allow the monastery to be closed.
The fact that spiritual continuity was not interrupted in the monastery was invaluable. No wonder it was here, in Pechora, in the Soviet 1950s, the staretz was revived - one of the most beautiful treasures of the Russian Church.