Russian princes Boris and Gleb became the first saints, demonstrating to people how to accept God's will, how to live and die with the name of the Lord and according to his precepts. Three dates of the Orthodox calendar are associated with their names:
- May 2 - the day of the transfer of relics to the tomb of the new church;
- July 24 is the day of memory of Prince Boris;
- September 5 is the day of memory of Prince Gleb.
Prince Vladimir's family
In the 10th century, when Russia was a fragmented and pagan land, the Kyiv prince Vladimir and his wife Milolika had sons Boris and Gleb. The pagan prince already had several marriages, and, accordingly, he had many children. Princes Boris and Gleb, being the younger ones, did not claim the throne of Kyiv.
Of the older children, those who, according to the rules, could inherit princely power after their father, were Svyatopolk and Yaroslav. Yaroslav was a native princely son, and Svyatopolk was only recognized as such, that isadopted from an earlier marriage.
The life of Prince Vladimir was spent in constant wars and battles, this is how the princes lived at that time: the ability to protect their lands from an external enemy, and to attach to their lands obtained from their neighbors was valued above all.
Baptism of Prince Vladimir
In 988, having won another war with Byzantium and captured the city of Korsun, Vladimir began to threaten Constantinople. The Byzantine co-emperors agree to give their sister Anna to the prince, but on condition that he renounces the pagan faith.
The prince leaned towards the Byzantine faith, Christianity has long been gradually penetrated into Russian souls. In 957, Princess Olga converted to Orthodoxy. And Vladimir gave his consent. During the sacrament, he was baptized with the name Vasily. Returning to Kyiv, he took his wife, priests, relics, church utensils, icons from the defeated Korsun.
On his return to his hometown, he addressed the residents of Kyiv with a decree: everyone should come to the banks of the Dnieper for baptism in the Orthodox faith. The people of Kiev treated their prince with respect and fear, so they fulfilled his demand, and the sacrament of the baptism of Russia took place in a peaceful atmosphere.
Life of Boris and Gleb
At this time, the sons of Prince Vladimir Boris and Gleb received a good education, brought up in piety. They were baptized along with all the people of Kyiv in the Dnieper and received the Orthodox names of Roman and David.
Elder Boris devoted a lot of time to the study of the Holy Scriptures, read the lives of the saints, was interested in their deeds, wanted toeveryone to follow their example. Both brothers were distinguished by a kind heart, sought to provide all possible assistance to all those in need.
When the time came, the prince married his Boris and gave him a small inheritance in the Vladimir-Volyn principality with the center in the city of Murom to rule. In 1010, he transferred Boris to reign in Rostov the Great, and gave Murom to the grown-up Gleb.
The brothers reigned fairly, served as an example to their subjects, spread the Orthodox faith in the principalities.
Prince Vladimir and his sons
In 1015, at the end of his life, the seventy-year-old Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich had eleven relatives and one adopted son from different wives, and there were fourteen daughters.
When the prince fell ill and realized that his life was coming to an end, he decided to inherit the principality of Kiev not to his eldest sons Svyatopolk and Yaroslav, but to Boris, for whom he felt great love.
Besides, the old prince had no confidence in his elder sons. Svyatopolk the Accursed, the adopted son, was already suspected of organizing a conspiracy to assassinate the power of the prince, for which he was put in prison with his wife.
Yaroslav, who reigned in Veliky Novgorod since 1010, behaved sensibly for four years, and then refused to obey his father and pay the due tribute to the Kyiv treasury. Prince Vladimir, outraged by the rebellious behavior of the heir, decides to go to war against Veliky Novgorod, and the frightened Yaroslav calls on the help of the Varangians. What would have turned out to be the confrontation in 1014 between the old prince andolder sons is unknown. But the prince fell ill.
Death of Prince Vladimir
Boris was in these difficult hours next to his sick father. And then, inopportunely, the news came about the raid on the Kyiv lands of the Pechenegs. The sick father gave Boris an 8,000-strong army and sent him on a campaign. The Pechenegs, having heard about the force that was coming against them, hid in the steppes. On the way back to Kyiv, Boris received sad news from the messenger about the death of the prince.
Svyatopolk, as the senior heir, was immediately released from prison and took the throne of Kyiv, contrary to the plans of the old prince. Realizing that he will not receive a principality by law because of his father's will, and also appreciating the love of the common people for Boris, he is plotting evil. Turning to the people of Kyiv for support, he does not spare promises and treasury. He himself makes bloody plans to eliminate all competitors for his father's inheritance.
The death of Boris
Meanwhile, Prince Vladimir's sons Boris and Gleb are praying for the soul of their dead father. Boris returns with his army from an unsuccessful campaign and, having learned about the death of Vladimir, stops on the Alta River, which is one day's journey from Kyiv. The messenger who brought the sad news also announced the seizure of the throne by Svyatopolk. The indignant governors, the faithful squad of Prince Vladimir, began to call Boris on a campaign against the impostor and by force to recapture Kyiv from him. Boris refused their help and they left him.
Guessing what fate awaits him, the young prince decides not to resist fate. Not wanting to shed brotherly blood, he refuses to defend himself. SoBoris understood Christ's commandments.
Twenty-five-year-old Boris, waiting for his killers, spent the whole night in prayer. In the morning, people sent by Svyatopolk the Accursed burst into his tent and stabbed him with spears. They wrapped the prince's body in a tent and took it to the capital as proof of the fulfillment of the order. But on the way it became clear that Boris was still breathing. Then two hired Vikings finished him off with swords.
Boris's body was secretly buried fifteen miles from Kyiv, in Vyshgorod, near the old wooden church of St. Basil the Great.
Gleb: Death
Princes Boris and Gleb were in many ways similar during their lifetime. They liked the same people, they loved the same occupation, their thoughts and actions were also similar. And they died at the hands of one villain.
Svyatopolk, clearing his way to the throne, did not stop at nothing. He deceives the young prince to come from Murom to Kyiv, and he, without delay, sets off on his brother's call. Another h alt was arranged in the area of the city of Smolensk, where Gleb receives news from his older brother Yaroslav. The messenger tells him the story of the death of his father and Boris and warns him on behalf of Yaroslav, transmits his order not to go to Kyiv.
Hearing the terrible news, Gleb turns to God for help and decides not to resist fate. Following the example of his beloved brother Boris, he prays on the banks of the Dnieper in anticipation of his killers. The villains, having accomplished their dirty deed, did not bother transporting the body, but buried Gleb on the river bank.
Another of the brothers who could claim the throne of Kyiv,Svyatoslav, prince of the Drevlyansk, was killed by Svyatopolk's warriors. He failed to escape in the Carpathians.
Christian Ministry of the Blessed Princes Boris and Gleb
Researchers of the life of princes who fell at the hands of villains claim that their feat is that they refused to shed the blood of their brother. Being deeply religious people, they honored God's commandments.
Saints Boris and Gleb are the first Christians in Russia who showed true humility by their example. The pagan faith, which lived in these parts for a long time, allowed, and even considered blood feud to be a virtue. The brothers, having accepted Orthodox baptism with all their hearts, did not begin to respond with evil for evil. They stopped the bloodshed at the cost of their own lives.
As the researchers of those events write, the Lord punished the power-hungry fratricide. In 1019, after numerous and bloody battles for the Russian lands, the squad of Yaroslav the Wise defeated the army of Svyatopolk the Accursed. He fled to Poland, but even there he did not find shelter and peace. He died in a foreign land.
Honoring princes Boris and Gleb
In the summer of 1019, the great Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise begins searching for the body of his younger brother Gleb. He sends priests to Smolensk, who learn that a beautiful glow is often seen on the banks of the river. The found body of the young prince is transported to Vyshgorod and buried next to the remains of Boris. Their burial place was the old wooden church of St. Basil, built in honor of their saint by their father, Prince Vladimir.
After some time, people began to notice strange phenomena occurring onbrothers grave. Everyone began to see light and fire, hear the singing of angels, and when one of the Varangians accidentally stepped on the grave, a flame escaped from there and scorched the defiler's feet.
After a while, there was a fire in the old church, and it burned to the ground. But among the coals, all the holy icons and church utensils remained untouched by fire. Then the parishioners realized that this was the intercession of the brothers-princes Boris and Gleb. Yaroslav reported the miracle to Metropolitan John I, and the bishop decides to open the tomb.
They built a small chapel on the site of the old church and transferred the found relics there, which turned out to be incorrupt.
Two new miracles, the correction of a lameness and the sight of a blind man, convince the most distrustful of the holiness of the princely relics. Then a decision was made to build a new church, where in 1021 the relics of Saints Boris and Gleb were finally placed. The new church, erected on the site of the old one, was consecrated in honor of the princes and became known as Borisoglebskaya. And the princes themselves were canonized under Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise and Metropolitan John I on July 24, 1037 in the Kyiv diocese.
According to church laws, the process of canonization of saints is carried out in three stages. The second stage takes place in 1073, when the relics of the saints are transferred to a new church, built to replace the already aged old one. From this moment begins the process of glorification of the martyrs-martyrs Boris and Gleb.
Those who endured suffering in the name of Christ
Passion-bearers in Orthodoxy are called those who endured suffering for the sake of the LordGod. But was the death of the brothers in the name of God? Did they glorify the Savior with their death and torment?
Researchers of the events of those times had a long debate on this topic. Among the brethren there were those who doubted the legitimacy of the canonization of the princes. After all, the murder of princes Boris and Gleb was purely political in nature, as they would say today: "It was ordered." In the princely civil strife, many princes of that time perished, there were victims before and after them. Finally, their older brother, Svyatoslav, died for the same reason, at the hands of the same killer. But the question of the canonization of this prince was never raised. So what's the difference?
It turns out that the brothers had completely different motives for action. The sanctity of Boris and Gleb lies in the fact that they accomplished a feat that had never been seen before in Russia: they simply wanted to live and die according to the word of Christ, to save the world by their death.
By the way, the arguments for canonization were at first not clear to everyone, and the canonization of the princes even required additional approvals from Constantinople.
Memory of princes
In 1113, a new temple of the noble princes Boris and Gleb was erected in Vyshgorod, but the transfer of the relics and the consecration of the cathedral took place only under the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh in May 1115. Borisoglebskaya Church was the largest and most beautiful in pre-Mongolian Russia.
Over time, faith in the intercession and miraculous power of the princes has increased. It is believed that thanks to them such victories of Russian weapons took place:
- when fighting the Polovtsiansin the 11th century;
- at the Battle of the Neva in 1240, when both brothers appeared in the boat in front of the army;
- during the battle on Lake Peipsi in 1242;
- when the Novgorod army captured the Swedish fortress of Landskrona at the mouth of the Neva;
- at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, where Prince Dmitry Ivanovich and other warriors saw with their own eyes how the heavenly warriors led by Boris and Gleb helped them on the battlefield.
The participation of saints in other, later events in the history of the Russian state, taking place in the XIV-XVI centuries, is described in numerous legends about Boris and Gleb.
In honor of the holy princes in Russia, many churches were consecrated, monuments and monasteries were erected, icons and literary works were painted.
Not far from Moscow, on the territory of the Borisoglebsky Monastery in the city of Dmitrov, a beautiful monument was erected in 2006. Boris and Gleb, two bronze horsemen, rise on a high pedestal. Author Alexander Rukavishnikov dedicated his work to the anniversary of the monastery.
Cities and streets are named after the brothers. Many talented icon painters in their works reflected fragments from the life of the holy princes Boris and Gleb. There are icons in pairs and singles, in full growth and on horseback. Books and poems have been written about the feat of the brothers, the authors of which are great writers such as Joseph Brodsky and Boris Chichibabin.
But the main thing is that the chronicles describe many cases of healing sick and crippled people who, by their faith in the Lord, contributed to the creationmiracle.
