05 — The Cult and Canonization
How two murdered princes became the first saints of the Church of Rus’. These files trace the formation of the Boris and Gleb cult under Yaroslav the Wise after his victory of 1019 — a veneration in which devotion and dynastic politics were inseparable — and the genuinely uncertain question of when and how the brothers were formally recognized as saints, including the unusual problem of how a Greek-led metropolitanate of Constantinople received the cult of princes killed in a family feud rather than for the faith.
Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Passion-Bearers; first canonized Rus saints)
The cult of Boris and Gleb is the foundational act of Rus’ sanctity: for the first time, the young Church of the Rus’ raised its own native dead to the altars, rather than receiving saints from Byzantium. That act was carried by Yaroslav the Wise, who had defeated the brothers’ supposed killer and who had every reason — devotional and political alike — to honor them. This section sets out how the cult was built, where the relics were gathered, and how the new saints were recognized; and it keeps steadily in view two questions that the sources do not settle: the date of any formal canonization, and the degree of Byzantine endorsement for a cult that was, in its origins, driven from below and from within the dynasty. Both are presented as structured disputes naming the positions and their advocates, in keeping with METHODOLOGY.md §3–4.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Formation of the Cult | Yaroslav the Wise’s promotion of the cult after 1019; the intertwining of devotion and politics (venerating the brothers blackened the defeated Svyatopolk and sacralized the new regime); the gathering of relics at Vyshgorod; the building of churches; the early miracles; and the disputed date of any formal canonization. |
| Byzantium and the Recognition | The both-sides question of Greek/Byzantine recognition: a Greek-led metropolitanate confronting the unusual cult of princes killed in a dynastic feud — the tradition’s metropolitan Ioann (John I) endorsing the cult versus the case for initial Byzantine reserve and a veneration driven from below. |
See Also
- The Killing of Boris — the death the cult would commemorate
- The Primary Chronicle — the source for the translation of relics of 1072
- A New Category of Sanctity — the passion-bearer ideal the cult enshrined
- Vyshgorod — the shrine where the relics were gathered
- Feast and the First Rus’ Saints — the saints’ enduring status in the Rus’ calendar
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.
- Lenhoff, Gail. The Martyred Princes Boris and Gleb: A Socio-Cultural Study of the Cult and the Texts. Columbus, OH: Slavica, 1989.
- Fedotov, George P. The Russian Religious Mind, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1946.
- Franklin, Simon, and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200. London: Longman, 1996.