When Venerable Anthony secluded himself in the cave and blessed Theodosius was building the monastery, our blessed father Nestor came to them, seeking the holy angelic monastic life. He was only seventeen years old at that time.

Even before becoming a monk, he embraced all monastic virtues: bodily and spiritual purity, voluntary poverty, profound humility, unquestioning obedience, strict fasting, ceaseless prayer, constant vigilance, and other Equal-to-Angelic labours through which he emulated the lives of the founders of the Holy Caves—Anthony and Theodosius. In his youth, he lovingly received every commandment from these two saints, like an infant drawing milk from its mother’s breast and like a thirsty deer drinking water from two streams flowing among the mountains in the caves.

In his writings, he shows his great love for these venerable founders: “not in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth…” (1 John 3:18). He fervently glorified God with his lips and soul, witnessing the shining good works of these two great luminaries.

After the honourable death in the eyes of the Lord of these venerable fathers, our blessed father Nestor, not only renounced worldly deeds while undergoing monastic trials but also abandoned the worldly way of life. He took on the holy angelic monastic image from Venerable Stephen, abbot of the Caves, who later ordained him as a deacon.

Seeing in himself a dual rank—monastic and diaconal—he strengthened his virtues daily, mortifying all carnal passions and practising every truth to be not carnal but spiritual, a true servant and worshipper of God, fully aware of the words of the Lord: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

The spirit of hostility, which lacks truth and does not worship the Lord, was defeated by him—judging by his writings—most notably through his ineffable humility. Everywhere, humbling himself, he called himself unworthy, crude, ignorant, and filled with many sins.

When, by divine inspiration, the brothers decided to uncover the honourable relics of Venerable Theodosius and transfer them from the cave to the holy Pechersk church, the blessed Nestor was the first to undertake this obedience. With great faith and prayer, he laboured all night, uncovering this precious treasure—the honourable relics of Venerable Theodosius—and brought them out of the cave, witnessing, as he himself recounts, the great miracles that occurred at that time.

Nestor lived for many years, dedicating himself to the work of chronicling. The main labour of his life was the composition of The Tale of Bygone Years.

“These are the tales of bygone years, whence came the Russian land, who first began to rule in Kyiv, and how the Rus’ land came to be,” — thus, from the very first lines, Venerable Nestor defined the purpose of his work.

Drawing from an unusually broad range of sources, viewed through a single, strictly ecclesiastical perspective, Venerable Nestor wrote the history of Rus’ as an integral part of world history and the history of humanity’s salvation.

Venerable Nestor recounts the key moments of establishing Orthodoxy in Kyivan Rus’. He mentions the first appearance of our people in ecclesiastical sources, the creation of the Slavic script by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, and the baptism of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga in Constantinople.

Nestor’s chronicle preserves for us the story of the first Orthodox church in Kyiv, the martyrdom of the holy Varangians, the “testing of the faiths” by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, and, most importantly, the Baptism of Rus’ in 988.

We owe our first church historian the knowledge of Kyiv’s early metropolitans, the Pechersk monastery’s founding, and its founders and ascetics.

Venerable Nestor reposed around 1114, entrusting to the Pechersk monk-chroniclers the continuation of his great work. His successors in chronicling included Abbot Sylvester, who gave The Tale of Bygone Years its contemporary form; Abbot Moses of Vydubychi, who extended it to 1200; and finally, Abbot Lavrenty, who in 1377 created the oldest surviving manuscript of Nestor’s chronicle.

The time of Venerable Nestor was challenging for both the state and the Church. Rus’ was tormented by princely feuds; nomadic steppe tribes, the Polovtsy, raided towns and villages, enslaving people, and burning churches and monasteries. Venerable Nestor witnessed the destruction of the Pechersk monastery in 1096. His chronicle offers a theological reflection on our history. The spiritual depth, historical accuracy, and patriotism of The Tale of Bygone Years place it among the greatest works of world literature.

The relics of the ascetic rest in the Near Caves, which have been indicated on maps since 1638.

In 1826, a gilded copper plaque named the righteous servant of God was placed over the relics, donated by the Society of History and Antiquities.

The separate commemoration of the saint is held on November 9 (October 27, Old Style), the day of Saint Nestor of Thessalonica.