Holy Passion-bearers Princes Boris (in baptism Roman) and Gleb (in baptism David) of Russia

Boris and Gleb were sons of Vladimir, prince of Kiev, baptized with the names Roman and David. When Vladimir died in 1015, their elder half-brother Svyatopolk seized the throne of Kiev and, according to the Russian chronicles, planned to remove his brothers. Boris, who was returning from a campaign with the army, learned of the plot, and the account says that he refused to fight his brother and was killed on the river Alta in July 1015. Gleb, on his way to Kiev, was killed on the Smyadyn river near Smolensk in September of that year.

They are the first saints canonized in Rus’. The Church calls them passion-bearers: they were not martyrs for the faith but are honoured for having accepted death without violence. Their cult gave Rus’ a model of princely meekness.