02 — The Martyrdom
The deaths of Boris and Gleb as the tradition narrates them: Boris killed on the river Alta after dismissing the army that would have made him king, and Gleb lured from Murom by a false summons and slain on the Dnieper near Smolensk. These files follow the three foundational sources — the Primary Chronicle, the anonymous Skazanie, and Nestor’s Chtenie — pinning each detail to the text that attests it and keeping the saints’ passion distinct from the historical event beneath it.
Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Passion-Bearers; first canonized Rus saints)
This section narrates the two killings that made Boris and Gleb the first saints of the Rus’ Church. Both deaths belong to the succession war that opened with Vladimir’s death in 1015 (see 01 — Foundations), and both are known almost entirely from works composed to venerate the brothers. The defining act in each is a refusal to resist: Boris will not raise his hand against his elder brother and dismisses his host; Gleb, deceived and overtaken, pleads for mercy but does not fight. The section presents these deaths as the tradition tells them, with the named killers, the prayers, and the wonders all pinned to their sources, and with the contested question of who truly ordered the murders held over to its own section.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Killing of Boris | Boris’s return from the Pecheneg campaign, his refusal to march on Kiev, the dismissal of the host, the vigil on the Alta, the spearing through the tent by the Vyshgorod boyars (Putsha and others), and the dispatch by two Varangians; the tradition’s date of 24 July. |
| The Killing of Gleb | Gleb at Murom, lured by Svyatopolk’s false message that their father was ill; the warning from Yaroslav; the interception on the Dnieper near Smolensk; Gleb’s pleading; his murder by his own cook, Torchin; and the body left on the riverbank between two logs. |
See Also
- The Succession Crisis of 1015 — the political stakes that made Boris the first target
- The Primary Chronicle — the source for the connected political narrative of the killings
- A New Category of Sanctity — the theology the Church drew from the brothers’ refusal to fight
- 01 — Foundations — the dynastic setting and the succession crisis from which the killings arose
References
- Cross, Samuel H., and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, trans. The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1953.
- Hollingsworth, Paul, trans. The Hagiography of Kievan Rus’. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
- Fedotov, George P. The Russian Religious Mind, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1946.
- Lenhoff, Gail. The Martyred Princes Boris and Gleb. Columbus, OH: Slavica, 1989.