I
will post information about the Military Saint, Alexander Nevsky from
Wikipedia.
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This icon of St. Alexander is a
high-resolution print on hardboard. The icon print is embellished with
light-reflecting gold and silver foil. The back of the icon is also decorated
with faux wood laminate. Includes the Prayerful Invocation to St.
Alexander in the Russian language.
Measurements Length 3.875" Width
0.50" Height 4.75"
Blessed at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
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Saint Alexander Nevsky
Святой Александр Невский |
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Born
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13 May 1221
Pereslavl-Zalessky, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia) |
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Died
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14 November 1263 (aged 42)
Gorodets, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia) |
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Resting
place
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Venerated in
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1547 by Metropolite
Macarius
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Major
shrine
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Robed as a Russian Great Prince, often wearing armor
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Saint Petersburg, soldiers, borders of Russia
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Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр
Яросла́вич Не́вский; pronounced [ɐlʲɪˈksandr jɪrɐˈslavʲɪtɕ ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj] (listen);
Ukrainian:
Олександр Ярославович Не́вський);
13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) served as Prince of Novgorod,
Grand Prince of
Kiev and Grand
Prince of Vladimir during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history.
Commonly
regarded as a key figure of medieval Rus', Alexander - the grandson of Vsevolod the Big
Nest - rose to legendary status on account of his military victories
over German and Swedish invaders while agreeing to pay tribute to the powerful Golden Horde. He was canonized as a saint
of the Russian Orthodox
Church by Metropolite
Macarius in 1547. Popular polls rank Alexander Nevsky as the
greatest Russian hero in history.
Early
life
From
Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander
found in the Second Pskovian Chronicle, circa 1260–1280, comes one of
the first known references to the Great Prince:
"By the will of God, prince Alexander was born from the charitable, people-loving, and meek the Great Prince Yaroslav, and his mother was Theodosia. As it was told by the prophet Isaiah: 'Thus sayeth the Lord: I appoint the princes because they are sacred and I direct them.'
"... He was taller than others and his voice reached the people as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom the Egyptian Pharaoh placed as next to the king after him of Egypt. His power was a part of the power of Samson and God gave him the wisdom of Solomon ... this Prince Alexander: he used to defeat but was never defeated ..."
Born
in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the second son
of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Rostislava
Mstislavna, daughter of Kievan Rus' Prince Mstislav Mstislavich the Bold. Alexander
seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of Vladimir.
In 1236, however, he was summoned by the Novgorodians to become knyaz (or prince) of
Novgorod
and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish and
German invaders.
According
to the Novgorod Chronicle written in the 14th cent., more than a century after
it is supposed to have happened, he Swedish army had landed at the confluence
of the rivers Izhora and Neva, Alexander and
his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes
on 15 July 1240 and defeated them. The Neva battle of 1240 saved Novgorod from
a full-scale invasion from the West.. Because of this
battle, 19-year-old Alexander was given the sobriquet
"Nevsky" (which means of Neva). This victory, coming just
three years after the disastrous Mongol
invasion of the Slav lands in the North West, strengthened Alexander's
political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. He would
soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.
This
supposed battle is not mentioned in any Swedish or other source. The supposed
Swedish commander was called "Spiridon" which is an Orthodox, not
Scandinavian name. Furthermore, the official Sweden was on the brink of war
with Norway
ever since the Norwegians' infamous Värmland expedition
in 1225. Relations improved only after the Treaty of Lödöse in 1249, which was forged by the
newly empowered Birger Jarl. Before the treaty, Norway remained an ally of the
folkungs, giving them refuge and providing men and arms. In this situation, it
seems unlikely that Sweden could have been able to organize a major expedition
against Novgorod. Swedes are not known to have carried out any other military
campaigns between 1222 and 1249, making the claims about their forceful
appearance at the Neva with Norwegians as their allies seem questionable.
After
Pskov had been
invaded by the Germans and Estonians, the Novgorod
authorities sent for Alexander. In spring of 1241 he returned from his exile,
gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men faced the
Livonian heavy cavalry led by the bishop
of Dorpat Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden. Nevsky faced the enemy
on the ice of the Lake Peipus and defeated the German knights and
Estonian infantry during the Battle
of the Ice on 5 April 1242.
Alexander’s
victory was a significant event in the history of the Russia. Foot soldiers of
Novgorod had surrounded and defeated an army of knights, mounted
on horseback and clad in thick armour. Nevsky's great victory against the Livonian Brothers
apparently involved only a few knights killed rather than hundreds claimed by
the Russian chroniclers; decisive medieval and early modern battles
were won and lost by smaller margins than are seen in contemporary conflicts.
Tactical military considerations aside, Alexander's victory was an important
milestone in the development of Muscovite Russia.
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The envoys of the Roman Pope attend Alexander
Nevsky
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Politician
After
the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen Russia’s Northwest. He
sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty
between Russia and Norway in 1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and
successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea
from the Russians in 1256.
Nevsky
proved to be a cautious and far-sighted politician.
He dismissed the Roman Curia’s attempts to cause war between Russia and
the Golden
Horde, because he understood the uselessness of such war with the Tatars at a time
when they were still a powerful force. Historians seem to be unsure about
Alexander’s behavior when it came to his relations with Mongols. He may
have thought that Catholicism presented a more tangible threat
to Russian national identity than paying a tribute to the Khan,
who had little interest in Slav religion and culture. It is also argued that he
intentionally kept the North Slav principalities and city states as vassals to
the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended
Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of
Novgorod to pay tribute). Alexander tried to strengthen his authority at the
expense of the boyars and at the same time suppress any anti-Mongol uprisings
in the country (Novgorod Uprising of
1259).
According
to one interpretation, Alexander’s intentions were to protect scattered
principalities of what would become Muscovy from repeated invasions by the
Mongol army. He is known to have gone to the Horde himself and achieved success
in exempting Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with
other peoples.
Some
historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden
Horde and refusal of cooperation with western countries and church as an
important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation (begun under Duke
Vladimir of Kiev and his Mother Olga)
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| Burial of Alexander Nevsky |
Grand
Prince of Vladimir
Thanks
to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, Alexander was installed as the Grand
Prince of Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in
1252. A decade later, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way
back from Sarai, the capital of the Golden
Horde. Prior to his death, he took monastic
vows and was given the religious
name of Alexis.
From
the Second Pskovian Chronicle:
"Returning from the Golden Horde, the Great Prince Alexander, reached the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and remained there for several days in good health, but when he reached the city of Gorodets he fell ill ...
Great Prince Alexander, who was always firm in his faith in God, gave up this worldly kingdom ... And then he gave up his soul to God and died in peace on 12 November [1263], on the day when the Holy Apostle Philip is remembered ...At this burial Metropolitan Archbishop Cyril said, 'My children, you should know that the sun of the Suzdalian land has set. There will never be another prince like him in the Suzdalian land.'And the priests and deacons and monks, the poor and the wealthy, and all the people said: 'It is our end.' "
Though
he died in Gorodets, Alexander was laid to rest in the city of Vladimir, in the
Great Abbey at The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God.
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Decoration of the Imperial Order of Saint
Alexander Nevsky
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Marriage
and children
According
to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander
married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of Polatsk and Vitebsk, in 1239.
Her name is not given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or
Alexandra (possibly birth and marital names respectively). They had five
children:
- Vasily Alexandrovich, Prince of Novgorod (c. 1239–1271). He was betrothed to Princess Kristina of Norway in 1251. The marriage contract was broken. Kristina went on to marry Felipe of Castile, a son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen.
- Eudoxia Alexandrovna. Married Konstantin Rostislavich, Prince of Smolensk.
- Dmitry of Pereslavl (c. 1250–1294).
- Andrey of Gorodets (c. 1255 – 27 July 1304).
- Daniel of Moscow (1261 – 4 March/5 March 1303).
He
married a second wife named Vasilisa or Vassa shortly before his death. They
had no known children.
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Soviet order of Alexander Nevsky
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Legacy
Some
of Alexander's policies on the Western border were continued by his
grandson-in-law, Daumantas of Pskov, who was also beatified in
the 16th century.
In
the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the Life of Alexander Nevsky (Житие
Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and
defender of Russia.
Veneration
of Alexander Nevsky as a saint began soon after his death. The remains of the
prince were uncovered in response to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in the year 1380, and found
to be incorrupt.
He was glorified
(canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. His
principal feast
day is 23 November. By order of Peter
the Great, Nevsky’s relics were transported to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St.
Petersburg where they remain to this day. A second feast day was instituted
on 30 August in commemoration of this event. He is also commemorated in common
with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.
On
21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander
Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During
the Great Patriotic War, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet
authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the
memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also a Bulgarian Order
dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881 and then
ceased to exist when a People's Republic was declared on 16
September 1946.
In
1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed
films, Alexander Nevsky, on Alexander's
victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by
Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into
a concert cantata.
Today, the film is renowned for its extraordinary battle on ice sequence, which
has served as inspiration for countless other films. In the picture, Nevsky
used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition
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The
sword of Russia
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.slideshare.net/lodgek/novgorod]
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Alexander's
proverbial phrase (paraphrasing Matthew 26:52), "Whoever
will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," has become
a slogan of Russian patriots. There is a long tradition of Russian naval
vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the 19th-century propellor frigate Alexander
Nevsky and a strategic ballistic missile nuclear submarine recently built for the Russian
Navy.
Alexander
Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous cathedrals
and churches are dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia.
On
24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia’s
history by popular vote, as reported by the Kommersant
newspaper.
In
December 2008, he was voted the greatest Russian in the Name of Russia television poll.
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Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in
Sofia, Bulgaria. Its foundation stone was laid on March 3, 1882, four years
after signing the Treaty of San Stefano, granting the
Liberation of Bulgaria.
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