Abstract

Originally, the Church of the Caves was not a temple in the sense of an architectural building but a complex of caves. The word "church" is used here in its initial gospel sense of council, a gathering of the initiated. Thus, what we are talking about is a certain community that prefers life in a cave to a settled secular social order. A study of the symbolic aspects of the image of the cave and cave dwelling can be an interesting contribution to the explication of certain essential features of Old Kievan monasticism. This article is an attempt at such an explication.