Nestor, who became a monk in the Cave Monastery after the death of
Theodosius ( 1074), probably wrote the biography of the first abbot in the eighties
of the eleventh century. The Life, patterned after Byzantine hagiographical
models such as the Life of Saint Antonius, by Athanasius of Alexandria, or the
Life of Saint Sabbas, by Cyril of Scythopolis, represents the older pragmatic
and realistic style in Russian hagiographical literature. In his introduction
Nestor refers to another of his hagiographical works, the Lection on the Life and
Assassination of SS. Boris and Gleb the Martyrs.

Only the first part, the life of Theodosius up to the moment of his entrance
into the monastery, is reprinted here. The second part is of less literary importance,
consisting in the main of a collection of unconnected anecdotes and lacking the
dramatic composition of the first part.

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