Saint Mark the Hermit
Of the first elders who lived in the caves by the Kamenets stream, only Mark is known by name; the records preserve nothing certain of his origins or his death. Tradition holds that he came from the Kiev Caves Lavra. According to the monastery Chronicle, 'a certain Elder was living at the Kamenets near the cave,' and he was recorded among the early elders in the monastery Synodikon.
The sources relate that when Abbot Saint Cornelius doubted the inscription bearing Mark's name and ordered it removed, he fell gravely ill, and recovered only after begging forgiveness at Mark's grave and restoring the name. His relics and clothing were later reported to have been found well-preserved by Abbot Dorotheus.
Saint Jonah, Founder of the Monastery
Jonah was originally a married priest named John, from the Moscow lands, who served at Iuriev (modern Tartu) in a church established by Pskovians and dedicated to Saints Nicholas and George. According to the accounts, around 1470 he fled persecution by the Catholic Germans and, learning of the martyrdom of his fellow priest Isidore, withdrew to the newly discovered caves by the Kamenets stream to maintain an Orthodox presence there.
He received the monastic name Jonah, dug out the cave church, and built two cells on pillars. The cave Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was consecrated on August 15, 1473, a date regarded as the official founding of the Pskov Caves Monastery. By tradition, a blind woman regained her sight before an icon at the consecration. Jonah labored at the monastery until his peaceful death in 1480; the accounts relate that chain mail was found hidden on his body, taken as a sign of his secret ascetic labors.
Saint Bassa
Bassa was Jonah's wife, named Maria in the world. She received the monastic tonsure with the name Bassa and reposed shortly afterward, numbered among the community's first nuns. The synaxarion relates that her coffin was twice found risen from the ground after burial, which the monks understood as a sign of divine favor, and she was reburied on the left side of the cave.
Tradition holds that her relics were preserved as a protection of the monastery; the accounts relate that when Livonian knights later attempted to open her coffin, they were repelled. She is also commemorated on March 19.
Founding and Setting
The monastery arose from natural caves along the Kamenets stream. By tradition, in 1472 a peasant named Ivan Dementiev, clearing forest, uncovered a cave entrance bearing the inscription 'The cave built by God.' The mid-15th-century settlement of hermits in these caves and the 1473 consecration of the cave church mark the beginnings of the community.
The monastery suffered damage from Livonian forces and was later rebuilt; according to the historical record it was reconstructed by a Pskovian official, the dyak Mikhail Munekhin-Misyur, in 1519. The relics of the three founders rest within the monastery.
