The Life
Boris and Gleb were the youngest sons of Saint Vladimir, the great prince who baptized Rus in 988. Boris (whose baptismal name was Roman) and Gleb (whose baptismal name was David) were born shortly before the Baptism of Rus and were raised as Christians from infancy. Their mother was probably Anna Porphyrogenita, the Byzantine princess Vladimir had married as part of the conversion. Boris was educated in the Christian Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and especially the Lives of the saints; he developed from his earliest youth a fervent desire to imitate the saints. Both brothers were known for their piety, gentleness, and love for the poor. While Vladimir was alive he had given Boris the principality of Rostov and Gleb the principality of Murom. When Vladimir died on July 15, 1015, the eldest surviving son, Sviatopolk, seized the throne in Kiev. Sviatopolk feared the popularity of his younger brothers and decided to eliminate them. Boris was returning from a military campaign against the Pechenegs when he received the news of his father\'s death and Sviatopolk\'s seizure of Kiev. Boris\'s commanders urged him to march on Kiev with his army, which was loyal to him; he could easily have taken the throne. Boris refused. He said: I will not lift my hand against my elder brother; let him be to me as a father. He sent his army away. Sviatopolk\'s assassins found him in his tent on the banks of the Alta River on Sunday, July 24, 1015, during the morning Matins service. They speared him in the tent. His Hungarian servant Saint George Ugrin died defending him. Boris was still alive; the assassins wrapped his body in a cloak and took him toward Kiev, where Varangian soldiers finished him with a sword. Gleb was lured from Murom by a false message that his father was ill and wanted to see him; while traveling, he received word from his brother Saint Yaroslav of what had really happened, but he refused to flee. The assassins reached him near Smolensk on September 5, 1015. He prayed; his own cook Torchin was forced to kill him with a knife. The body was left under a tree on the bank of the Dnieper. The Russian people received the witness of Boris and Gleb as the foundational Russian saintly testimony: they had imitated Christ in non-resistance to evil. They are called Passion-Bearers (strastoterptsy in Russian) because they did not resist evil with violence. They were the first Russian saints canonized by the Russian Church and recognized by Constantinople. The Russian conviction that the highest Christian witness can take the form of voluntary acceptance of death rather than resistance, even when resistance would be morally and politically justified, has been received throughout the Russian Orthodox tradition as one of the foundational Russian contributions to the broader patristic patrimony.
Boris and Gleb were the youngest of Vladimir\'s many sons, born shortly before or after the Baptism of Rus in 988. Their mother is variously identified by the sources, but the most reliable analysis suggests it was Anna Porphyrogenita, the Byzantine princess Vladimir had married as part of the conditions of his conversion. Vladimir loved these two younger sons in a special way, perhaps because they were his only children born within his Christian marriage to Anna. The boys grew up in the Vladimirian court at Kiev, surrounded by the new Christianity of the recently baptized Russian state. Boris received an excellent Christian education, learned to read both Slavonic and probably Greek, became familiar with the Scriptures, with the principal patristic writers (especially Saint John Chrysostom, the most influential Father in the new Russian Christianity), and especially with the lives of the saints. He was particularly drawn to the early martyrs and to the Christian princes of the Byzantine tradition. From his youth he prayed that he might be made worthy to imitate the saints he read about. Gleb was raised similarly and shared his brother\'s aspirations. Both brothers were known for charity to the poor, for personal piety in their daily devotional life, and for the gentleness and humility uncharacteristic of the Russian princely class of the period. While Vladimir was still alive, he gave Boris authority over the principality of Rostov and Gleb authority over the principality of Murom; both brothers ruled their territories with the integration of Christian piety and political administration that would subsequently be received as the model of the Russian Christian prince.
Vladimir died on July 15, 1015. He had perhaps a dozen sons by various wives, scattered across his kingdoms ruling principalities. The Russian tradition of succession was unclear; the throne could in principle go to any of the sons. The eldest surviving son, Sviatopolk, was at Kiev when Vladimir died. He immediately seized the throne. His position was precarious. Sviatopolk\'s biological father was probably not Vladimir at all but rather Vladimir\'s brother Yaropolk, whom Vladimir had killed during the earlier civil war for the Russian throne; Sviatopolk had been born to a captured wife of Yaropolk whom Vladimir had subsequently taken. The Russian populace knew this and regarded Sviatopolk with substantial doubt. The army preferred Boris, who had recently returned from a successful campaign against the Pechenegs and who was popular for his piety and gentleness. The other surviving brothers -- Boris in the field, Gleb at Murom, Yaroslav at Novgorod, and several others scattered across the kingdom -- were all potential rivals. Sviatopolk made the decision to eliminate his brothers preemptively. He began with Boris, who was the most immediate threat because of his proximity to Kiev and the loyalty of his army. He sent agents to find and kill him. Boris was returning from the Pecheneg campaign when news of Vladimir\'s death and Sviatopolk\'s seizure reached him. His commanders and the bulk of his army immediately urged him to march on Kiev: he had the better claim, the popular support, and the military force; victory was nearly certain. Boris had to make a choice that would define his entire subsequent witness. He chose not to march. He sent the army away.
After dismissing his army, Boris remained at his camp on the Alta River south of Kiev with only a small personal household. He knew what was coming. The hagiographical tradition records that he spent the night in prolonged prayer, asking the Lord to give him the strength to endure his death without bitterness. He read aloud the Psalter, especially the psalms about the righteous suffering at the hands of his enemies. On Sunday morning, July 24, 1015, he was attending the Matins service in his tent (a priest was traveling with him to provide the services). Sviatopolk\'s assassins, led by Putsha, surrounded the tent and waited until the conclusion of the service. When Matins was over, they broke into the tent and speared Boris with their lances while he was still at prayer. His Hungarian servant Saint George Ugrin threw himself over the prince\'s body to shield him; the assassins killed George. Boris was wounded but still alive. The assassins wrapped his body in a cloak and tent canvas and began carrying him toward Kiev to deliver him to Sviatopolk. On the road they noticed that he was still breathing. Two Varangian soldiers in Sviatopolk\'s service then finished him with a sword stroke. The body was buried in secret at the church of Saint Basil at Vyshgorod. Boris was perhaps twenty-five years old. The Russian Christian people received the witness immediately. A young prince had imitated Christ exactly: he had refused to defend himself by force, had spent his last hours in prayer, had been killed during the Eucharistic services of the Lord\'s Day, had forgiven his enemies. The hagiographical tradition preserves the prayer Boris is said to have offered as the assassins approached: Lord, you see how my brother seeks my soul. Forgive him, Lord, and do not hold this sin against him.
Gleb learned the truth on the way but refused to flee. His own cook killed him on the bank of the Dnieper. After killing Boris, Sviatopolk turned to Gleb. Gleb was at Murom, hundreds of miles to the northeast. To reach him would take time and might allow him to escape or organize defense. Sviatopolk used a different approach. He sent a message: their father Vladimir was seriously ill and wished to see Gleb urgently. Gleb did not yet know that Vladimir was dead or that Boris had been killed. He immediately began the journey to Kiev, traveling by river down the Volga to the Oka, then by horse and boat through the Dnieper system. Along the way he received word from his brother Yaroslav at Novgorod of what had really happened: Vladimir was dead, Boris was murdered, the message from Sviatopolk was a trap. Gleb wept for his father and brother. His companions urged him to turn back, to flee to Yaroslav at Novgorod, to organize a defense. Gleb refused. He said he would not run from his brother\'s wrath. He would not lift his hand against Sviatopolk. If Sviatopolk wished to kill him, he would not resist. He continued the journey. The assassins reached him on the Dnieper near Smolensk on September 5, 1015. Gleb saw them coming. He dismissed his own companions to spare them: do not stay; they will kill you with me. He met the assassins alone on the riverbank. He prayed. The hagiographical tradition records his prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, behold, I am being prepared as a sacrifice; receive my soul in peace. Sviatopolk\'s captain ordered Gleb\'s own cook, a man named Torchin, to perform the murder, perhaps because no one else would do it. Torchin killed his master with a knife. The body was left under a tree on the riverbank, where it lay unburied for some time before being recovered by Yaroslav\'s men some years later. Gleb was perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old.
When the Russian Church canonized Boris and Gleb in 1071, a problem arose. They were not martyrs in the classical patristic sense: they had not been killed for confession of the Christian faith. They had been killed for political reasons by a brother who was himself a baptized Christian. By the strict patristic definition that had developed in the early Church around figures like Saint Polycarp, Saint Justin, and the Roman martyrs, Boris and Gleb did not qualify as martyrs. But they were obviously saints. They had imitated Christ exactly in his Passion: refusing to take up arms in self-defense, accepting death without bitterness, forgiving their murderers, dying in prayer. Their witness was a martyric witness, even though it did not fit the classical pattern. The Russian Church developed a new theological category to receive them: the Passion-Bearer (in Russian, strastoterpets, "one who bears suffering"). The Passion-Bearer is a saint whose holiness consists in his imitation of Christ\'s Passion, even when the death is not strictly for confession of faith. The category extended subsequently to additional Russian saints who fit the pattern: Saint Andrei Bogolyubsky (a twelfth-century Russian prince murdered by his own court), Saint Mikhail of Tver (a fourteenth-century prince killed in the Mongol golden horde), Tsarevich Saint Dmitry of Uglich (an infant prince murdered in 1591), and most recently Tsar-Martyr Saint Nicholas II and his family (killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918). The Passion-Bearer is a distinctively Russian contribution to the broader patristic patrimony. It articulates the conviction that the highest Christian witness can take the form of voluntary acceptance of death rather than active resistance, even when active resistance would be morally permissible or even politically required.
When the Russian Church canonized its first saints in 1071, the choice was significant. The Russian Church could have canonized first its founder Saint Vladimir (who would not be formally canonized until later, in the thirteenth century). It could have canonized Saint Olga, Vladimir\'s grandmother, the first Christian ruler of Russia. It could have canonized Saint Anthony of the Kiev Caves or Saint Theodosius, both then recently reposed. Instead the Russian Church canonized Boris and Gleb. This was a statement about what authentic Russian sanctity would look like. The Russian Church declared, through its choice of first saints, that the highest Russian Christian witness consists in non-resistance to evil, in the deliberate imitation of Christ\'s Passion, in the refusal of fratricidal violence even when self-defense would be morally legitimate. The pattern set by Boris and Gleb became the template of subsequent Russian sanctity. Russian saints would include great hierarchs and theologians, great monastic founders, great missionaries -- but the highest category, the template, would always be the Passion-Bearer who imitates Christ in non-resistance. This Russian self-understanding has shaped the entire subsequent Russian Orthodox tradition. It shaped the Russian Christian response to the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century. It shaped the Russian response to political persecution under various tsars. It shaped the Russian response to the Soviet persecution of the twentieth century, which produced more Russian Orthodox martyrs than the entire Roman persecutions of the early Church. The Boris-Gleb pattern remains, in the contemporary Russian Orthodox tradition, the template of the highest form of Christian witness available to the Russian Christian.
After Yaroslav defeated Sviatopolk in 1019, the bodies of Boris and Gleb were recovered. Boris had been buried in secret at the church of Saint Basil at Vyshgorod. Gleb\'s body was located under the tree on the Dnieper riverbank where it had been left, miraculously incorrupt, and brought to Vyshgorod to be buried alongside his brother. Veneration began immediately. The Russian populace recognized the saintly character of the witness and began to make pilgrimage to the relics. Healings and miracles were reported. By the 1030s a service to the saints had been composed, traditionally attributed to Metropolitan Saint John I of Kiev. By the 1050s the witness was being commemorated in the broader Russian Christian world. In 1071 the Russian Church formally canonized Saints Boris and Gleb as the first Russian saints; the Patriarch of Constantinople approved the canonization. The relics were translated multiple times across the subsequent centuries, including a major translation on May 2, 1115 (which became the principal feast of the Translation of the Relics). The church of Saint Basil at Vyshgorod was rebuilt and rededicated in honor of Saints Boris and Gleb. Veneration spread across the entire Russian Christian world: monasteries, churches, and chapels dedicated to the Holy Passion-Bearers spread across Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the broader Russian Orthodox diaspora. The principal feasts are July 24 (the joint commemoration), May 2 (the Translation of the Relics), and September 5 (the martyrdom of Saint Gleb). The witness continues to be received as fundamental for Russian Orthodox identity. In the contemporary Russian Orthodox tradition, the names Boris and Gleb remain among the most popular Russian Christian names. The pattern of non-resistance to evil established by their witness continues to shape Russian Orthodox theology, spirituality, and ecclesiastical self-understanding. They are venerated together as one of the foundational saintly pairs of the Russian Orthodox tradition.