Memorial of Saints (July 10)

on July 10:

• Rufina and Secunda, virgin and martyrs;
• Amalburga, widow;
• Amalburga, virgin;
• Antony and Theodosius of Pechersk, abbot

Rufina (d. ca. 257 A.D.) and her sister Secunda were daughters of a Roman senator. They were engaged to be married, but when the men they were engaged to be married to apostasized during the persecution of Christians under Valerian, they refused to do the same. They fled from Rome to escape the persecution. They were then captured and then beheaded for their faith.

Antony Pechersk (983-1073 A.D.) was educated to be a hermit. He went to Russia and built a hermitage at Kiev on the Dnieper River. He attracted others and thus began the Caves of Kiev - the first Russian monastery established by Russian monks for Russians. With Theodosius Pechersk, he is considered the father of Russian monasticism.

Theodosius Pechersk (d. 1074 A.D.) in about 1032 A.D. became a monk at the Caves of Kiev, founded by Antony Pechersk. When he became abbot after Barlaam, he replaced Antony's concept of monasticism based on the austerities of the Egyptian hermits with the more moderate approach of the Palestinian monks. He emphasized harmony between the active and contemplative life. During the four decades of his abbacy, the Caves of Kiev became a great monastery.