A native of the
Principality of Kiev, David entered the
Kiev Caves Lavra as young man, where he was
tonsured a
hieromonk and given the
religious name Dionysius. He is known to have spent a number of years living in a
cave that he dug out himself on the banks of the
Volga River not far from
Nizhny Novgorod. Later, Dionysius founded the
Pechersky Monastery on that same spot, which was dedicated in honour of the
Ascension of the Lord. In 1374, he was
consecrated as the
bishop of
Suzdal and won love and respect on the part of the locals. In 1378, Dionysius was recommended as the
Metropolitan by
Sergius of Radonezh after the death of
Metropolitan Alexius. However, Grand Prince
Dmitri Donskoi had his own candidate – a priest by the name of Mikhail (Mityaya). Dionysius was one of a number of bishops at the council who opposed Mikhail, who was suspected of
heresy (
strigolniki). If elected, Mikhail wanted to introduce a new way of
enthroning the Metropolitan at home, in
Russia, rather than traveling to
Constantinople to be installed by the
ecumenical patriarch (at the time, Russia did not have an
autocephalous church). In 1379, Dionysius went to Constantinople carrying a protest against the choice of Mikhail addressed to the Patriarch. Mikhail was afraid that Dionysius would get the patriarch's blessing and followed him to Constantinople. However, Mikhail died on his way there and one of his accompanying clergymen, Archmandrite
Pimen, reached Constantinople before Dionysius and was named as the metropolitan in place of Mikhail. In 1382, Dionysius received the title of
archbishop from the patriarch, who was impressed with his piety and humility. In 1383, Dionysius returned from this long journey to his congregation at Suzdal and continued his struggle against the
strigolniki. He also implored Dmitri Donskoi against Pimen, whom he viewed as a usurper, since no one in the Russian Church, not even the grand prince himself, had been consulted before Pimen was appointed as metropolitan. In 1384, Dionysius was sent back to Constantinople to ask for Pimen's
deposition and his own appointment as metropolitan.
Patriarch Neilus Kerameus was not sure whether he could trust Dionysius and sent two metropolitans to
Moscow, who were supposed to depose Pimen and install the archbishop of Suzdal. On his way back to Moscow, Dionysius stopped in
Kiev, where he was detained by the Kievan prince
Vladimir Olgerdovich at the insistence of
Cyprian, the archbishop of Kiev, who was to have succeeded as the metropolitan of Moscow in 1378 upon the death of Alexius, but who was not finally welcomed into Moscow until 1390. Dionysius died in detention on 15 October 1385. He was buried in the
Caves of St. Anthony at Kiev, in the monastery in which he began his spiritual life. ==Veneration==