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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Icon of Alexander Nevsky
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Born
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Died
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Resting
place
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Venerated in
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23 November (Repose)
23 May (Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and
Yaroslavl
30 August (Translation of relics)
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Saint Petersburg, soldiers, borders of Russia
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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 ..."
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
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.
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:
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.
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
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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.
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.
