November 9 believers honor Nestor Chronicle of Pechersk

This monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra became the first Russian church historian and a person who literally “gathered” together the history of Ancient Russia.

Nestor lived in a difficult era of princely strife and nomad raids. He saw the ruin of his native monastery and believed that the main weapon against oblivion was the word. He has a surprisingly modern thought about the benefits of reading: “The great use of the teaching of the book.” They comfort us in sorrow. He who reads books talks with God or holy men.”.

The main work of his life is “The Tale of Bygone Years”. Starting with the legendary words “Where did the Russian land come from”, Nestor set himself an ambitious goal: to put the history of our people in the context of the world. To do this, he used a wide range of sources: from Byzantine chronicles and monastic records to oral stories of boyars, merchants and soldiers.

It is thanks to Nestor that we know about the Baptism of Russia, the “testing of the faiths” of Prince Vladimir, the creation of Slavic writing and the first Christian churches.

The Monk Nestor died about 1114 and was buried in the Near Caves of the Lavra. His work was continued by his students. Today, his main work remains the foundation of our historical identity, and Nestor himself is revered not only in the Orthodox, but also in the Catholic tradition.

November 9 celebrate the name day Andrey, Athanasius, Willi, Ivan, Capitolina, Maxim, Mark, Nestor, Nikolai, Sergei, Stepan.