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Troparion to the blessed prince Gleb, in holy baptism to David. Holy noble princes Boris and Gleb

The holy noble princes-passion-bearers Boris and Gleb (in Holy Baptism - Roman and David) are the first Russian saints canonized by both the Russian and Constantinople Churches. They were the youngest sons of the saint Prince Equal to the Apostles Vladimir (+ July 15, 1015). The holy brothers, born shortly before the Baptism of Rus', were raised in Christian piety. The eldest of the brothers, Boris, received a good education. He loved to read Scripture, the works of the holy fathers and especially the lives of the saints. Under their influence, Saint Boris had an ardent desire to imitate the feat of the saints of God and often prayed that the Lord would honor him with such an honor.

Saint Gleb with early childhood was brought up with his brother and shared his desire to devote his life exclusively to serving God. Both brothers were distinguished by mercy and kindness of heart, imitating the example of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, merciful and responsive to the poor, sick, and disadvantaged.

While his father was still alive, Saint Boris received Rostov as an inheritance. While ruling his principality, he showed wisdom and meekness, caring first of all about planting Orthodox faith and establishing a pious lifestyle among his subjects. The young prince also became famous as a brave and skillful warrior. Shortly before his death Grand Duke Vladimir called Boris to Kyiv and sent him with an army against the Pechenegs. When the death of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir followed, his eldest son Svyatopolk, who was in Kyiv at that time, declared himself Grand Duke of Kyiv. Saint Boris was returning from a campaign at that time, having never met the Pechenegs, who were probably frightened of him and fled to the steppe. Upon learning of his father's death, he was very upset. The squad persuaded him to go to Kyiv and take the grand-ducal throne, but the holy Prince Boris, not wanting internecine strife, disbanded his army: “I will not raise my hand against my brother, and even against my eldest, whom I should consider as my father!”

However, the insidious and power-hungry Svyatopolk did not believe Boris’s sincerity; In an effort to protect himself from the possible rivalry of his brother, who had the sympathy of the people and troops on his side, he sent assassins to kill him. Saint Boris was informed of such treachery by Svyatopolk, but did not hide and, like the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity, readily met death. The killers overtook him while he was praying for Matins on Sunday, July 24, 1015, in his tent on the banks of the Alta River. After the service, they burst into the prince’s tent and pierced him with spears. The beloved servant of Saint Prince Boris, Georgy Ugrin (originally a Hungarian), rushed to the defense of his master and was immediately killed. But Saint Boris was still alive. Coming out of the tent, he began to pray fervently, and then turned to the murderers: “Come, brothers, finish your service, and may there be peace for brother Svyatopolk and you.” Then one of them came up and pierced him with a spear. Svyatopolk's servants took Boris's body to Kyiv; on the way they met two Varangians sent by Svyatopolk to speed up the matter. The Varangians noticed that the prince was still alive, although he was barely breathing. Then one of them pierced his heart with a sword. The body of the holy passion-bearer Prince Boris was secretly brought to Vyshgorod and laid in a church in the name of St. Basil the Great.

After this, Svyatopolk just as treacherously killed the holy Prince Gleb. Having insidiously summoned his brother from his inheritance - Murom, Svyatopolk sent his warriors to meet him in order to kill Saint Gleb on the road. Prince Gleb already knew about the death of his father and the villainous murder of Prince Boris. Deeply grieving, he chose death rather than war with his brother. The meeting of Saint Gleb with the murderers took place at the mouth of the Smyadyn River, not far from Smolensk.

What was the feat of the holy noble princes Boris and Gleb? What is the point in dying like this - without resistance at the hands of murderers?

The lives of the holy passion-bearers were sacrificed to the main Christian good deed - love. “Whoever says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother is a liar” (1 John 4:20). The holy brothers did something that was still new and incomprehensible to pagan Rus', accustomed to blood feud - they showed that evil cannot be repaid with evil, even under the threat of death. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). The holy martyrs Boris and Gleb gave their lives for the sake of obedience, on which a person’s spiritual life and, in general, all life in society is based. “You see, brethren,” notes the Monk Nestor the Chronicler, “how high is obedience to an older brother? If they had resisted, they would hardly have received such a gift from God. There are many young princes today who do not obey their elders and are killed for resisting them. But they are not likened to the grace that these saints were awarded.”

The noble passion-bearing princes did not want to raise their hands against their brother, but the Lord Himself took revenge on the power-hungry tyrant: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it” (Rom. 12:19).

In 1019 the prince Kyiv Yaroslav The Wise, also one of the sons of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, gathered an army and defeated Svyatopolk’s squad. By God's providence, the decisive battle took place on a field near the Alta River, where Saint Boris was killed. Svyatopolk, called the Accursed by the Russian people, fled to Poland and, like the first fratricide Cain, did not find peace and refuge anywhere. Chroniclers testify that even his grave emanated a stench.

“From that time,” the chronicler writes, “sedition in Rus' died down.” The blood shed by the holy brothers to prevent internecine strife was that blessed seed that strengthened the unity of Rus'. The noble passion-bearing princes are not only glorified by God for the gift of healing, but they are special patrons and defenders of the Russian land. There are many known cases of their appearance in difficult times for our Fatherland, for example, to Saint Alexander Nevsky on the eve of the Battle of the Ice (1242), to Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoy on the day of the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). The veneration of Saints Boris and Gleb began very early, shortly after their death. The service to the saints was compiled by Metropolitan John I of Kyiv (1008-1035).

The Grand Duke of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise took care to find the remains of Saint Gleb, which had been unburied for 4 years, and buried them in Vyshgorod, in the church in the name of Saint Basil the Great, next to the relics of Saint Prince Boris. After some time, this temple burned down, but the relics remained unharmed, and many miracles were performed from them. One Varangian stood irreverently on the grave of the holy brothers, and a suddenly emanating flame scorched his feet. From the relics of the holy princes, a lame youth, the son of a resident of Vyshgorod, received healing: Saints Boris and Gleb appeared to the youth in a dream and made the sign of a cross on his sore leg. The boy woke up from sleep and stood up completely healthy. The blessed prince Yaroslav the Wise built a stone five-domed church on this site, which was consecrated on July 24, 1026 by Metropolitan John of Kyiv with a cathedral of clergy. Many churches and monasteries throughout Rus' were dedicated to the holy princes Boris and Gleb; frescoes and icons of the holy passion-bearing brothers are also known in numerous churches of the Russian Church.

On August 6, the Orthodox Church remembers the holy princes-passion-bearers Boris and Gleb. To a country that had said goodbye to paganism, they showed a new type of holiness: humility before the will of the Almighty and a willingness to accept suffering and death. This unprecedented behavior and perseverance in the face of death ultimately did no less in the Christianization of Rus' than its recent baptism.

Boris

The chronicle speaks of the death of Prince Boris: already knowing that the murderers sent by his brother Svyatopolk were standing at his tent, the prince sang psalms. And then he prays for a long time in front of the icon of the Savior. “Lord,” the prince cries. “Just as you accepted suffering for our sins, so grant me the ability to accept suffering.” And he asks for the murderer-brother: “Don’t hold it against him, Lord, it’s a sin.”

All this time, Svyatopolk's envoys do not dare to attack Boris. They hear the words of his last prayer, breathe noisily, and have spears in their hands. The chronicle names the killers by name: these are Putsha, Talets, Elovit and Lyashko - boyars from the city of Vyshgorod, who swore allegiance to Svyatopolk. They burst into the tent when the prince, having finished his prayers, goes to bed. They pierce him with spears - Boris's Hungarian servant tries to cover him, and he is killed too - and then they wrap the prince's body in a tent and put it on a cart to bring to Svyatopolk. On the way, it turns out that the prince is still breathing. Two Varangians sent by Svyatopolk to meet the murderers finish the job with swords.

What is known about Prince Boris from the chronicle? He was the beloved son of Prince Vladimir, the baptist of Rus'. From his father, Boris received Rostov as his inheritance. Shortly before his death, Vladimir, having fallen ill, called Boris to Kyiv and sent him to war with the Pechenegs (by the way, he never found the Pechenegs - reports that they were preparing a campaign against Rus' turned out to be false). It was during this campaign that the young prince received news of Vladimir’s death. The chronicle reports: the warriors advised Boris to go to Kyiv and sit down there, but he refused - knowing that his elder brother Svyatopolk had already taken his place in Kyiv. “I will not raise my hand against my elder brother: if my father died, then let this one be my father instead,” the chronicler quotes Boris as saying. In response to this, the army left him. Only a few servants remained - “youths,” as the chronicle calls them. In a tent on the Alta River, not far from Kyiv, where he spent last night Prince, they will all die with him.

Gleb

Gleb, younger brother Boris, reigned in Murom. Svyatopolk, who by that time had already killed Boris, sent a message to him: “Come to Kyiv, your father is very sick and is calling you.” Obedient Gleb, who did not know that Vladimir had already died, set off on his journey. The news about the death of his father and the murder of his brother found him on the road, near Smolensk - this news was sent to Gleb by his elder brother Yaroslav, who advised him not to travel to Kyiv.

The chronicle says: having learned about what had happened, Gleb prayed with tears for his father and brother. “If your prayers reach God,” he cried out to Boris, “then pray for me, so that I too may accept the same martyr’s death.” At this time, the assassins sent by Svyatopolk boarded his ship. One of the messengers, whom the chronicle calls Goryaser, ordered the young prince to be stabbed to death - the order was carried out by the cook Gleb, stabbing him with a knife. This happened in the first half of September 1015 - a month and a half after the murder of Boris.

Version

Historians argue about why Svyatopolk, whom the chronicle calls only the Accursed, needed to kill his brothers.

A partial answer to this question is given by a contemporary of those events - the German Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg. His chronicles tell the following about the confrontation between the heirs of the baptist of Rus': Svyatopolk, who received an inheritance from his father in Turov (modern Belarus), shortly before the death of Vladimir, was taken into custody in Kyiv. The reason for this was Svyatopolk’s desire to overthrow Vladimir from the throne, says Thietmar.

This story explains how Svyatopolk ended up in Kyiv in the first place, and indicates that the throne was occupied by him illegally. And although Boris accepted his brother’s seniority, he still saw him as a competitor in the struggle for power in Kyiv. Thietmar points out that it was to Boris that Vladimir wanted to give Kyiv, bypassing the seniority of Svyatopolk.

Prince Gleb could have become a victim for the same “competitive” reasons: the chronicle indicates that he loved his brother Boris and cried for him more than for his father. In a conflict between Boris and Svyatopolk, if one could happen, Gleb would probably side with the former.

Reverence

Exact date The canonization of the brother princes is unknown. Most likely, it occurred in 1072, when the relics of the passion-bearers were transferred to a stone church in Vyshgorod.

Evgeniy Golubinsky, a historian at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, notes that the reason for canonization was not initially the martyrdom of the brothers, but the numerous healings that occurred to pilgrims at their relics.

TO beginning of XII centuries, the princes began to be considered the intercessors of the entire Russian land and the patrons of the princely family. The princes decorated the shrines with their relics with silver and gold and built churches in their honor. During Batu's invasion in 1240, the relics of the saints were lost.

“The life of Boris and Gleb is a clear evidence of the changes that occurred as a result of the civilizational choice of their father, Grand Duke Vladimir, an example of the destruction of old values ​​and the acquisition of new ones,” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. - Even when faced with a squad sent against them, they do not draw their sword, but bow their heads in humility before the will of God and die, testifying to vitality that spiritual and moral ideal that entered into them and into many through the baptism of Vladimir, through the Baptism of Rus'.”

Boris and Gleb are the first saints canonized by the Russian and Constantinople churches. The younger sons of Equal to the Apostles, born before the baptism of Rus', demonstrated religious and spiritual feats. They showed an example of humility and non-resistance to evil for the sake of peace and goodness.

The first generations of Orthodox Christians were raised by the example of the passion-bearing princes who accepted death and wished to share the suffering of Christ.

Saints Boris and Gleb are loved and revered by the Russian people. The pious martyrs showed how one must accept the will of God, whatever it may be. The brothers were canonized as holy passion-bearers, and they became the patrons of Rus' and the heavenly helpers of the Russian princes.

Childhood and youth

At baptism, the younger sons of the Grand Duke of Kyiv were given the names Roman and David. In the biography of the brothers, their dates of birth remained blank spots. The mother of Boris and Gleb, according to the Tver collection of 1534, was a “Bulgarian”, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Roman II. Non-chronicle data indicate a different name - Milolika.


Boris and Gleb were raised as pious Christians. The eldest Boris (the ninth son of Vladimir Svyatoslavich) was given a good education. The young prince spent a lot of time reading Holy Scripture and traditions about the lives and deeds of saints, wanting to “walk in their footsteps.” The young man dreamed of a spiritual feat and turned with prayers to the Almighty, so that he would be honored with the honor of laying down his life in the name of Christ.

At the behest of his father, Boris married and was installed to rule Vladimir-Volynsky on the right bank of the Luga. Then, by the will of Prince Vladimir, the son was appointed to reign in Murom on the left bank of the Oka, while being in Kyiv.


During the life of the Grand Duke, in 1010, Boris received the Rostov inheritance under his control. While ruling the lands, Boris took care of the spread of Orthodoxy among his subjects, instilled piety and monitored the righteous lifestyle of his inner circle of subordinates, whom the people looked up to.

Murom was taken over by Boris’s younger brother, Gleb. Prince Gleb shared the views of his older brother and his love for Christianity. He was like Boris in his kindness and mercy towards the disadvantaged and sick. The example for the sons was their father, Grand Duke Vladimir, whom they loved and revered.


In the spring of 1015, the Grand Duke of Kiev lay on his deathbed. At the bedside of his dying father was Boris, who loved and revered Vladimir “more than anyone else.” Having learned about the attack on the possessions of the 8,000-strong Pecheneg army, the Grand Duke sent Boris to repel the enemy influx: Boris Vladimirovich, a zealous Christian, also became famous as an experienced warrior.

Boris went on a campaign, but did not meet the Pechenegs: frightened, the nomads left for the steppes. On the way, the young prince learned about the death of his father. The death of Vladimir Svyatoslavich freed the hands of the older grand-ducal offspring, the half-brothers Svyatopolk and Svyatopolk, who were aiming for the Kiev throne.


Previously, Vladimir dealt harshly with troublemakers who pursued their own policies and sought independence. Yaroslav, who refused to pay tribute to Kyiv, was declared a rebel by his father and gathered a squad for a campaign against Veliky Novgorod in order to humble the schismatic. And the adopted son Svyatopolk, nicknamed the Accursed, was imprisoned along with his wife and accomplices on charges of conspiracy to gain power.

The death of the ruler opened the way for the heirs who were striving for power, and Svyatopolk, who was released, took advantage of Boris’s departure from the capital, and took the Kiev throne. During his lifetime, Prince Vladimir saw Boris as the legal successor, which Svyatopolk knew about. Having distributed generous gifts to the Kievans, in order to win them over to his side, Vladimir’s stepson launched a bloody struggle against Boris and Gleb, direct competitors for the throne.

Death

Boris's squad, which accompanied him on the campaign against the Pechenegs, was ready to march on Kyiv and overthrow Svyatopolk, but the prince refused to shed the blood of his named brother and sent the army home. Svyatopolk doubted Boris’s good intentions and wanted to eliminate his competitor.

The circumstance that pushed the impostor to the bloody massacre was the people’s love for the young prince. Svyatopolk sent loyal servants to Boris, instructing him to kill the heir to the throne. The prince was informed of the intentions of his treacherous brother, but he did not want to preempt the attack or hide.


On a Sunday in July, 1015, Boris Vladimirovich was in a tent on the banks of the Alta. He prayed, knowing that death awaited him. When he finished the prayer, he humbly invited the sent killers to do what Svyatopolk had sent them for. Boris's body was pierced by several spears.

The servants wrapped the bloody body of Boris, who was still breathing, and took it as evidence to the prince who ordered the murder. They were met by the Varangians sent by Svyatopolk, sent by the prince to help the murderers. Seeing that Boris was alive, they finished him off with a dagger in the heart. The deceased was taken to Vyshgorod and hidden in a temple under cover of darkness.


Gleb remained in Murom, and Svyatopolk understood that he could take revenge for the murder of his beloved brother. The killers also went to him, which Gleb was warned about by messengers from Kyiv. But Gleb Vladimirovich, who grieved over his deceased father and brutally murdered brother, followed Boris’s example: he did not raise his hand against Svyatopolk and did not start a fratricidal war.

Svyatopolk lured Gleb from Murom, where he could be protected by loyal troops, and sent warriors to him, who carried out a bloody mission at the mouth of the Smyadyn River near Smolensk. Gleb, following the example of his older brother, resigned himself to a terrible fate and, without offering resistance to his tormentors, resignedly accepted death.

Christian service

The Christian feat of the brothers lies in the fact that they refused to take the life and shed the blood of a brother, although named, because according to the canons of Orthodoxy, murder was considered a mortal sin. They deliberately became passion-bearers, putting their lives on the altar of Christian love. Boris and Gleb did not violate the postulate of Christianity, which states that everyone who swears love for God, but at the same time hates their neighbor, is deceitful.


Saints Boris and Gleb are the first in Rus' who showed Christian humility by their example. In Rus', which was previously in the darkness of paganism, blood feud was elevated to valor. The brothers demonstrated that one cannot respond to evil with evil, and the bloodshed can only be stopped by refusing to respond in kind.

Faithful to Christian teaching, Boris and Gleb followed its main postulate, which says not to be afraid of those who kill the body, because the soul is beyond their reach.


As historians of that time write, the Lord punished the power-hungry and bloody tyrant. In 1019, the fratricide's squad was completely defeated by the army of Yaroslav the Wise. The prince, whom his contemporaries nicknamed the Accursed, fled to Poland, but there was no reliable shelter, no quiet life I couldn’t find it in a foreign land. The chronicles say that a stench emanated from the grave of the fratricide.

And in Rus', as the apocrypha writes, peace reigned and strife subsided. The blood shed by Boris and Gleb strengthened unity and stopped wars. Immediately after his death, the veneration of the passion-bearers began. The service to Boris and Gleb was compiled by John I, Metropolitan of Kiev.

Yaroslav the Wise found the unburied remains of Gleb and transported them to Vyshgorod, where he placed them next to the relics of Boris. When the temple burned down, the relics of the holy brothers remained untouched by the flames.


Evidence of the miraculous power of the holy relics has been preserved. The healing of a young man from Vyshgorod is described: the brothers appeared to the teenager in a dream and overshadowed his sore leg sign of the cross. The boy woke up and walked without limping.

Having heard about the miraculous healing of the sick man, Yaroslav the Wise ordered the construction of a five-domed church on the site of the appearance of the youth of saints, which the Metropolitan consecrated on the day of the murder of Boris (July 24) in 1026.

In Rus', thousands of churches and monasteries were built, named after saints, where services are held. The icons of the passion-bearers are worshiped by millions of Orthodox Christians around the world.


Boris and Gleb are called saints who patronize Rus', protecting it from enemies. Saints appeared in dreams before Battle on the ice and when he fought on the Kulikovo field in 1380.

Hundreds of cases of healing and other miracles associated with the names of Boris and Gleb are described. In history, the image of the brothers has been preserved to this day. Poems and novels have been written and films have been made about the holy martyrs, whose lives are described in legends and apocrypha.

Memory

  • The memory of Saints Boris and Gleb is celebrated three times a year. May 15 - the transfer of their relics to the new church-tomb in 1115, which was built by Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich in Vyshgorod, September 18 - the memory of the holy Prince Gleb, and August 6 - a joint celebration of the saints
  • The cities of Borispol in the Kyiv region were named in honor of Boris and Gleb; Daugavpils in 1657-1667 was named Borisoglebsk, Borisoglebsk Voronezh region, Borisoglebsky village in the Yaroslavl region, Borisoglebsky village in the Murmansk region

  • Boris Tumasov ("Boris and Gleb: Washed with Blood"), Boris Chichibabin (poem "On the Chernigov Night from the Ararat Mountains..."), (poem "Sketch", Leonid Latynin (novels "Sacrifice" and "Den") wrote about Boris and Gleb.
  • In 1095, particles of the relics of the holy princes were transferred to the Czech Sazavsky monastery
  • The Armenian Cheti-menaion of 1249 includes the “Tale of Boris and Gleb” under the title “The History of Saints David and Romanos”

In the summer of 1015, Prince Vladimir died. None of his entourage expected such an early death of the prince. Confusion reigned in Kyiv. But the Russian people were even more struck by the death of their younger sons - Boris of Rostov and Gleb of Murom.

Their death followed almost immediately after the death of their father. It was a villainous murder. Boris and Gleb fell victims of a crime committed on the orders of their older brother Svyatopolk.

How many villainous murders have been and are being committed in the world! The struggle for power claimed the lives of many people both before and after Boris and Gleb. However, it was their death that made a huge impression on ancient Russian society.

Their posthumous veneration short terms spread throughout Rus', ahead of church glorification.

We know little about the brothers’ lives before their deaths. They were the youngest of Vladimir's sons and, in addition to the Slavic names Boris and Gleb, had christian names— Roman and David.

But about them last days More than two hundred literary monuments have been preserved - lives, legends, chronicles. All this indicates that it was not worldly piety, but death that became the reason for their glorification.

In what way did the Russian people see the holiness of the two princes and the meaning of their Christian feat?

The news of his father's death found Boris on a campaign against the Pechenegs. Having defeated the enemy, he returned to Kyiv and on the way he learned of Svyatopolk’s intention to kill him as a competitor to the Kiev throne.

Boris decides not to oppose his brother, despite the persuasion of the squad, who then left him. Boris spends the night in his tent in prayer, waiting for the killers. The ancient author dwells in detail on the events of this night.

Boris reflects on the vanity of the world and the meaninglessness of power. He reminds himself of the basic Christian virtues - humility and love. But what Boris feels most strongly is the thought of martyrdom.

He remembers the suffering of the holy martyrs Nikita, Vyacheslav and Varvara, who died at the hands of their father or brother. Confirmed in the idea that free torment is an imitation of Christ, Boris repeats twice: “If my blood is shed, I will be a martyr to my Lord.”

At dawn, Svyatopolk's accomplices burst into Boris's tent and pierced him with spears. The faithful servant, who tried to cover the prince with his body, was killed on his chest.

Having wrapped Boris's body in a tent, he was taken to Kyiv on a cart. Under the city, seeing that Boris is still breathing, two Varangians finish him off with swords.

The second brother, Gleb, is overtaken by the killers on the Dnieper. Svyatopolk tricks him into summoning him to the capital. Brother Yaroslav's warning does not stop the prince.

Until the last moment, he does not want to believe in Svyatopolk’s treachery. Seeing the boats of the killers, Gleb “rejoiced in his soul, wanting to receive a kiss from them.” But realizing that they had come to kill him, Gleb begs them for mercy on “his youth.”

The description of Gleb's murder pierces the reader's heart with acute pity. A young man, almost a boy, trembles under the killer’s knife. Not a single detail of brave and voluntary acceptance of one's share mitigates the horror of this murder.

On the orders of the killers, Gleb’s own cook cuts his throat with a knife. Gleb’s dying prayer ends with his confidence that every disciple of Christ is left in the world to suffer, and every innocent and free suffering in the world is suffering for the name of Christ.

This spirit of free suffering triumphs in Gleb over his human weakness and desire to live.

The prince's body was thrown on the shore, and only a few years later was found by Yaroslav, who buried him next to Boris.

The martyrdom of the holy princes is devoid of any semblance of heroism. This is not a firm expectation of death and not a challenge to the forces of evil, which is so often heard in the suffering of ancient martyrs. On the contrary, the idea of ​​sacrifice, distinct from heroic martyrdom, appears with particular force.

And the feat of the two young princes was that in the face of death, only one thing turned out to be important for each of them - to be with Christ, to be like Christ. The Russian Church did not make a distinction between death for faith in Christ and death in following Christ, especially honoring the latter.

The feat of non-resistance to evil became a national Russian feat, a true religious discovery of the Russian people. Through the holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, as through the Gospel, the image of the meek and suffering Savior entered the heart of the Russian people, as its most cherished shrine.

The Christian meekness and humility of the two brothers helped the Russian people for centuries to maintain patience and wisdom in the most difficult moments of history.

On September 18 (September 5, O.S.), the Orthodox Church celebrates the day of remembrance of the holy noble Prince Gleb. The blessed Prince Gleb, in holy baptism David, is one of the first Russian martyrs and passion-bearers. He suffered along with his brother Prince Boris (in holy baptism Roman).

Author of “History of the Russian State” N.M. Karamzin emphasizes: Prince Gleb, son of the baptist Kievan Rus, Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, became the first prince of Murom. Gleb's mother, like his older brother Boris, according to the great Russian historians Solovyov and Tatishchev, was the Byzantine princess Anna. Gleb Vladimirovich, Prince of Murom, was born around 984, but the exact date is unknown.

Grand Duke Vladimir had a special weakness for the “younger royal” children, singling them out among his twelve sons. This probably played a fatal role in their future fate.

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE

This is how our first local historian Alexey Alekseevich Titov describes the arrival of Prince Gleb to his patrimony, the city of Murom, in the “Historical Review of the City of Murom”:

“The young prince, having easily reached the city under the guidance of a trustee, thought that the citizens, having accepted him as a strong ruler, distinguished more than others by the love of Vladimir the Great, would soon turn to knowledge Christian faith. But in this respect he did not have the blessed lot of his parent. The residents of Murom did not accept Christian teachings from Gleb and his spiritual mission. Even the example of their neighboring Suzdal residents, who accepted the Christian faith in 991, did not influence them. According to the conviction of Vladimir himself and the two bishops who came there for this purpose, they were not accepted because the people of the Murom region, who converted more than others in matters of trade and local industry, were reluctant accepted religious suggestions, fearing to admit without special testing a faith that did not agree with their domestic traditions ... ".

So the young prince had to found his court not in the center of Murom, in the fortress, but on the very edge, in a forest. For his own safety, he ordered to strengthen his courtyard with a strong and high wall.

He lived there with his courtiers and clergy, as the son of the Russian sovereign, for several years.

It is difficult to say when Prince Gleb left Kyiv for Murom as his inheritance. According to the chronicle, Vladimir distributed the cities to his twelve sons in 988. At that time, Gleb was still a baby, or, more likely, according to historians, he was not born at all. Indeed, in the tragic year 1015, Prince Boris, his beloved brother, is depicted as a young man who is just growing a mustache and beard; and Gleb was younger than Boris. It is believed that the arrival of Gleb on the Murom land can be approximately dated back to 1010.

THE GAP IN PAGAN IGNORANCE

There is no doubt that the main concern of the young prince was the inculcation of Christianity in connection with the concerns of Grand Duke Vladimir about the spread of the new religion. But he never managed to solve this problem radically. As it is said in the prologue about Saint Gleb: “... having made many attempts, it is impossible to overcome him (Murom) and convert him to Holy Baptism; but after living two miles away (two summers) he was called to flattery from Svyatopolk.”

After the death of Prince Gleb, paganism remained the basis of the faith of the inhabitants of the land of Murom. Only Prince Constantine managed to “instill” the foundations of Christianity almost a hundred years later.

At the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, Murom was considered a fairly large and economically developed city. He had close trade ties with Kama Bulgaria, the Arab East and Scandinavia. Therefore, regarding religion, the city residents had their own arguments. They did not trade their principles, and they did not betray their natural faith and preserved it as long as they could.

Prince Gleb settled and founded a princely court further up the river. Here he built the first temple in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, and then a monastic monastery for the enlightenment of the Murom land Christ's faith. Now it is Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery. After the brutal murder, Prince Gleb was canonized and became the first passion-bearer saint of Rus'.

Later, Saint Basil, Bishop of Murom and Ryazan, the holy saints Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia, and the righteous Savva of Moshok stayed in the monastery at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. A Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky visited the holy elder Anthony Groshovnik in the monastery.

There is another version of the first prince’s stay in Murom. It is known that in 988 Prince Vladimir divided his land between his sons. Murom went to Gleb. When he arrived in the city, he was unlucky. The inhabitants turned out to be malicious pagans. They did not accept the Christian faith and did not let him into the city.

Having a squad, the young prince could force the Murom residents to let him in. But he decided not to enter the city by force. Prince Gleb left Murom and settled 12 versts from it “on the Ishna River” (now Ushna).

According to legend, he strictly carried out the will of his parent, Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir, who “commanded him to build holy churches in Murom.” It is believed that it was Prince Gleb who founded the monastery next to his princely court on the Ushna River, where the village of Borisogleb later grew. The St. Boris and Gleb Monastery successfully existed for over 600 years and was liquidated by decree of Empress Catherine the Great in 1764, like many other monasteries in Russia. Its remains adorn this ancient village to this day.

But in any case, it is Prince Gleb who holds the honor of the first sower of Christianity on the Murom land. It was he who made the first breach in pagan ignorance and darkness, which still for a long time reigned on our ancient land.

TRAGEDY ON THE SMYADYNI RIVER

1015 He made history Ancient Rus' as one of the darkest. It was in this year that a terrible crime occurred in the grand ducal family of Rurikovich. On the way to Kyiv, as directed stepbrother Svyatopolk, striving for power, the first Murom prince, Gleb, was killed. In The Tale of Bygone Years, Svyatopolk is shown as an example of an exclusively negative prince. There is not a single bright feature in his appearance; all his actions are atrocities.

Having taken the vacated throne after the death of the Grand Duke of Kyiv and the Baptist of Rus' Vladimir, he was afraid of everyone and everything. Svyatopolk felt insecure. And he planned a murder: “I will beat all my brothers, and I will take over the Russian power alone.”

And it happened as follows. In 1015, Prince Gleb of Murom received a message from his older brother Svyatopolk from Kyiv. He wrote that Gleb needed to come to the capital city of Kyiv as soon as possible, because his father was sick and was calling him to say goodbye: “Come on board, your father is calling you, he’s not well.” As a loving son, Prince Gleb could not remain indifferent and, taking a small squad with him, set off on the road.

The prince did not immediately leave for Kyiv. He first visited his brother Boris in Rostov the Great, where he reigned. But Gleb did not find his brother at home. He had previously been sent by his father at the head of a large grand ducal squad to fight the Pechenegs. And the Murom prince did not know that his brother had already died at the hands of hired killers.

Then the Murom prince was seen in Veliky Novgorod, where his elder brother Yaroslav reigned. Gleb invited him to go with him and visit his sick father. But Yaroslav refused. Moreover, he tried to dissuade him from the suspicious trip. But the younger brother did not listen.

From the horse, Gleb and his squad moved onto the boat and headed along the Smyadyn River, a tributary of the Dnieper, towards Smolensk. It was here that the envoys of his brother Yaroslav caught up with him, who in the near future would go down in the history of Ancient Rus' under the nickname Wise.

In his message, the elder brother warned: “Don’t go, brother, your father died, and Boris was killed by Svyatopolk.”

Great grief gripped Prince Gleb. Hearing this, he began to cry and pray, and in the meantime the killers sent by Svyatopolk arrived, whom he sent to intercept Gleb on the road. Having quietly crept up to the prince's ship, the killers captured it and disarmed all his servants. This tragedy happened at the confluence of the Smedyn into the Dnieper, five miles from Smolensk.

The body of the Murom prince was thrown onto the shore and left between two birch trees in a simple, roughly put together coffin, like a commoner, while they galloped away. When local residents discovered him several years later, it seemed to them that Gleb had been killed quite recently. He was brought to Vyshgorod and buried in the church of St. Vasily next to his brother Boris, who suffered the same tragedy a month and a half earlier.

Later, Grand Duke Yaroslav expelled the traitor-fratricide Svyatopolk from Kyiv. Soon he ordered the relics of Gleb and Boris to be transferred to the capital and buried in the church of St. Basil. After the great fire of this temple, it seemed that the bodies should have been completely burned. But the fire spared them. And on May 2, 1072, the relics were transferred to a newly built temple in the name of Boris and Gleb in the capital city of Kyiv. The last reburial took place under Vladimir Monomakh on May 2, 1115.

Christian feat of the prince

Why did the prince allow himself to be killed? This question worries many generations of researchers of the history of Ancient Rus'. From the heights of our time, it is difficult to understand that Prince Gleb Vladimirovich of Murom behaved humbly as death approached. Moreover, he knew that inevitable death awaited him on the way to Kyiv.

There were other harbingers of tragedy. While driving along the road, something happened bad omen: Gleb’s horse stumbled. The prince injured his leg. There was also a direct warning when he received written news from his elder brother Yaroslav about the death of Grand Duke Vladimir and the murder of Boris at the hands of mercenaries sent by Svyatopolk. But Prince Gleb didn’t even try to defend himself in order to save his life. He prayed: “Woe is me, Lord! It would be better if you died with your brother than live seven times in the world.”

On all icons and in many stories, the Murom prince Gleb is shown as still very young and almost a youth. Although he was appointed to reign in the blessed city of Murom by his father in 988, as reported in the Tale of Bygone Years. The insidious murder occurred in 1015. It turns out that Gleb reigned on Murom land for 27 years! Unfortunately, history does not tell us the age of his actual entry into the reign. Perhaps the governors did this for him. But even if he was proclaimed Prince of Murom in the year of his birth, he was clearly not a youth and could well stand up for himself. Moreover, his squad was nearby.

The author of “The Tale of Bygone Years,” in a departure from the tragic narrative, spoke about “the meeting of siblings in paradise.” They were very happy and rejoice that they will never be separated again. The author concluded the biography of the martyred princes with great praise. He compared their feat with the feat of Christ himself, for Boris and Gleb sacrificed their lives, praying for the happiness of their living compatriots.

The names of the brothers already in ancient times were covered with an aura of holiness. Their death was perceived as a feat of civil and religious asceticism. The brothers' hyper-humility elevated their act to the rank of a religious feat. They were not just killed, but voluntarily accepted death so as not to violate in any way not only family and civil institutions, but also religious ones, not only human, but also divine.

The first Russian saint

Prince Gleb gave his life for the sake of peace between the princes and the tranquility of his Motherland. By this he secured eternal life for himself. The exact date of his canonization is controversial. According to A.A. Shakhmatov, it is associated with the transfer of Gleb’s body from the bank of the Smyadyn River to Vyshgorod around 1020 and his burial at the Church of St. Basil. And historian V.P. Vasiliev in his essay “The History of the Canonization of Russian Saints” (1893) also connects the beginning of veneration with the above fact, but expands the time frame of canonization to 1039. But in any case, the Murom prince Gleb, like his half-brother Boris, is the first Russian saint. He is also considered the health educator of the Murom-Ryazan country, where the memory of him from ancient times has been preserved to this day as the first preacher of the Christian faith and patron.

In 1072, an annual festival was established in honor of the holy princes. “As the first Russian saints,” says Professor Golubinsky, “they were recognized as patrons of the Russian land, and for this reason, in the pre-Mongol period, their memory was celebrated very solemnly and was included in the annual holidays of the Russian Church.”

And in the post-Mongol period, their memory enjoyed great honor among us: this is evidenced by the many temples and monasteries in different places dedicated to their name. During the Mongol invasion, Vyshgorod was completely devastated, its churches were looted or destroyed. The relics of Saints Boris and Gleb disappeared to an unknown location. Although attempts to find their traces were made over many centuries, including under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1743, under Alexander I in 1814 and 1816, and in modern times. But all searches remained in vain.

In Murom already in the 12th century there was a church of Saints Boris and Gleb. And there were many of these throughout pre-Mongol Rus'. Images of Gleb and Boris were popular. It is interesting to note that the Muromo-Ryazan diocese in the old days was called Borisoglebskaya in honor of St. Gleb, the sovereign and first enlightener of the Muromo-Ryazan land.

Today, few people know that in 1853, on the site of the death of St. Gleb, the ancient Smyadyn well was superbly equipped. This was done at his own expense by the Murom merchant, city mayor A.V. Ermakov as a sign of special respect for the memory of the guardian and patron of the city of Murom.

Today in Murom there is no church in honor of the patron saint of the city, Prince Gleb. There is no monument to Saint Prince Gleb, although he deserves it like no one else. Such a monument would certainly not only decorate Murom and attract new tourists and believers to Orthodox Church, but would also play a positive role in educating new generations of citizens.