Synaxis Synaxis of the Venerable Martyrs of Zverinets

The Synaxis of the Venerable Martyrs of Zverinets is celebrated on October 30 (November 12) in memory of the monks of a cave monastery that existed in the Zverinets tract near Kiev in the pre-Mongol period — presumably one of the most ancient cave complexes of the Kiev land alongside the Kiev Caves Lavra itself. According to tradition, the monastery's brethren suffered a martyr's death at the end of the 11th century during one of the Polovtsian raids on the Kiev lands: the caves were collapsed, and the monks perished, either suffocating or buried alive. The caves were accidentally rediscovered in 1888, when among the burials found were the incorrupt relics of several dozen monks bearing clear signs of violent death, which was taken as confirmation of the ancient tradition of their martyrdom. The exact names of most of them have not survived, and the Church honors their memory collectively, as the unnamed martyrs of the Zverinets Caves.