Saint
Alexander Nevsky was Russia's "knight in shining armor." His reputation as a man of
exceptional valor and surpassing virtue inspired a visit by a German
commander who told his people when he returned: "I went through many
countries and saw many people, but I have never met such a king among
kings, nor such a prince among princes." The Russians called him their
"prince without sin."
He was born just four years
before the fierce Tatars, under the leadership of Ghengis Khan, came
galloping across the steppes of Kievan Rus'. The once flourishing city
state--whose social, cultural and spiritual achievements boasted few
rivals in Western Europe--had been weakened by quarrelling princes and
attacks of warring tribes, and it was an easy prey for the massacring
and pillaging Asiatic aggressors. Fortunately, the Mongol Horde's
primary interest in conquest was financial gain, and although it imposed
a heavy tax on its subjects, they were left to govern themselves and
retained their traditions and religion intact, Nevertheless, the yoke of
foreign sovereignty was burdensome; individual princes were reduced to
acting as feudal landlords for their Mongol lords, and inclinations
toward s national unity--the dream of Grand Prince Vladimir--were
stifled. A strong leader was needed if the land of Rus' was to have any
hope of healing internal strife, of throwing off the Tatar yoke, and
establishing its identity as a nation state.
The baneful effect of
internal dissension was a lesson which came early to Prince Alexander,
as he witnessed his father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, struggle with
the proudly independent spirited boyars of Novgorod, It was there that
the boy grew up. Like most noble youth s of his time, he had barely
learned to walk before he was lifted into the saddle. Training in the
martial arts was combined with an education based upon the Scriptures.
Under the influence of his mother, who was popularly called "the holy
queen" on account of her piety and charitable deeds, the young prince
developed a profound spiritual life. He engrossed himself for hours in
reading the Old and New Testaments.
He was still an
adolescent when in 1236 his father became Grand Prince of Kiev (a
position of primacy among the princes), leaving Alexander in charge of
Novgorod. Its characteristically unruly citizenry was gradually won over
by the uncommon wisdom and youthful charm of its new ruler. Meanwhile,
the Tatars were moving north; they overran Ryazan, Moscow and the
Russian capital of that time, Vladimir. They were prevented from
reaching Novgorod only by the surrounding marshes. But the city was
spared this disaster only to face a greater threat, this time from the
west.
Encouraged by the Roman
Pope who desired the conversion of Russia to Catholicism, the Swedes and
Germans took advantage of Russia's weakened state and prepared to
attack. As a staunch Orthodox Christian, Alexander recognized that
conquest from the west would deal a mortal blow at the very heart of
Russia—the Orthodox Church, a fate incomparably worse than political
subjugation by the Tatars. In 1210, well armed Swedish troops moved onto
Novgorod territory. Preparing his men to repel the invaders, St.
Alexander encouraged them with his now famous affirmation: "God is not
in might but in Truth. 'Some trust in princes and some in horses, but we
will call upon the Lord our God.'" The Russian forces, their Prince in
the lead, were crowned with success after a fierce battle on the shores
of the Neva.
Victories followed
against the Livonian Germans and the Lithuanians. The Russian
north-east, devastated by the Tatars, looked with hope upon the young
warrior prince. His fame reached the ears of the Mongol lord, Khan Batu,
who desired to see this Russian hero. It was a perilous honor. Before
being presented to the Khan, the Russian princes--whose authority
depended on his approval--were required to fulfill certain pagan
traditions: walk through fire, bow down to a bush and to the shadows of
deceased khans, etc. Alexander would in nowise consent to such idolatry
and, strengthened by Holy Unction, prepared himself to accept the death
penalty which Prince Michael of Chernigov had paid under similar
circumstances.
Arriving in the Golden Horde'
s capital at the mouth of the Volga, Alexander at once confessed his
Christian convictions: "O King," he said, bowing before the Khan, "I bow
before you because God has favored you with authority, but I shall not
bow before any created thing. I serve the One God. Him alone do I honor
and Him alone do I worship." Khan Batu was so impressed by the courage
and handsome demeanor of the young prince that to everyone's amazement
he accepted his refusal and received him with due honor.
Gaining the respect of the
Khan was a triumph for Alexander, but it did not insure peace. The
remaining course of his life as Grand Prince of Russia was spent in
securing its western borders against persistent German campaigns, in
subduing the Novgorodians' defiant opposition to the Khan's poll tax,
and in diplomatically placating the Khan’s anger which flared
intermittently in response to indiscretions committed by the lesser
princes.
Although it was 200 years
before Russia was free of Tatar control, St. Alexander’s skill and
self-sacrificing devotion which he brought to the Herculean task set
before him as ruler, and his commitment to the preservation of Orthodoxy
at the core of a growing national consciousness, made him a hero of both
historic and spiritual dimensions. He died as he was returning from one
of his exhausting journeys to the Khan, having taken the Great Schema on
his death bed. His respected spiritual advisor, Metropolitan Cyril, was
serving the Divine Liturgy in Vladimir when he saw the Prince’s soul
being carried aloft by angels and announced to those present: “Brethren,
know that the sun of the Russian Land has now set.” In 1547 St.
Alexander was glorified by the Church which celebrates his memory on the
day of his repose, November 23, and the day of the translation of his
incorrupt relics, August 30, 1724, to the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in
St. Petersburg, where they rest to this day.
He was born on May 30, 1219 at Pereaslavl, a
fief of his father, Prince Yaroslav, who was of the house of the Grand
Prince of Suzdal. He spent the first years of his life in this small
city which stood on the shores of a lake among the trees and meadows and
was defended by a simple wooden palisade. His parents, real country
nobility, were very devout, they contributed to the adornment of the
cathedral and of a monastery established nearby on a hill and they were
present at all the divine services celebrated in a small chapel which
was connected with their residence by a wooden arcade.
Alexander was scarcely three years old when his
father was elected prince of Novgorod and went to live two leagues away
from this ever unruly city in order to preside over its fortunes. Here
again the role of the Church seems at first to have been predominant. It
was in the cathedral of St. Sophia itself that three times a week the
council of boyars, the real masters of the free city, met together. But
dissension reigned in this strange republic, incessant disputes occurred
between the rich merchants and the craft guilds, between the nobles and
the prince. As a child, Alexander was present at stormy scenes and at
scuffles between citizens and his father's followers. On four occasions
he witnessed his father's departure for his fief at Pereaslavl whence he
was recalled again at once by his new subjects. At an early age
Alexander thus came to know the horrors of internal dissension, the
dangers which threatened his country, and became aware of the duties
incumbent on its rulers. He developed a profound spiritual life. After
mastering the first rudiments of his education he would become absorbed
for hours at a time in reading the Old and New Testaments.
At the age of nine he was left alone at
Novgorod with his elder brother Theodore, under the guardianship of
certain nobles. His father, who had grown disgusted with his office,
only returned for short periods and at one time the children themselves
were obliged to flee under the leadership of a tutor. Meanwhile,
Theodore, the older brother, died prematurely on the eve of his wedding,
and when his father, in 1236, became by right of succession Grand Prince
of Kiev (that is, ruler of all Russia) to Alexander fell the fief of
Novgorod.
The adolescent found himself faced with
terrible responsibilities. The following year occurred the great Mongol
invasion of the north of Russia and it was only by a miracle that the
barbarian hordes were halted before the walls of Novgorod in March 1238
and made their way back to the steppes. Alexander, called on to reign
and to fight, henceforth devoted his whole life to the service of the
nation; bowing to the divine will he sacrificed himself for the common
good. But he did not renounce the world. In 1239 he married the daughter
of the Prince of Polotsk, a feudal neighbor. He enjoyed the pleasure of
the chase and hunted the bear armed only with a sling. But his duty
always took first place with him.
His memorable reign at Novgorod lasted for
sixteen long years. Alexander made it his business to combat the
separatist tendencies of the city and to strengthen its links with the
central power. He endeavored to weaken the economic and political power
of the boyars by a direct intervention in the administration of justice,
by taking away from the important merchants the right of levying a
tribute on furs over an immense region of the north for their own profit
and by abolishing other unjustified privileges.
But it was particularly as the defender of the
material and spiritual patrimony of the nation that he has rendered his
name immortal by his victorious resistance to the Swedes, the Teutonic
Knights and the Lithuanians and, subsequently, when he became Grand
Prince, by establishing an acceptable modus vivendi with the
Mongolian overlord.
His first victory over the Swedes, won in 1240
on the banks of the Neva, had world-wide repercussions and earned for
him the name of Nevsky with which he is known to history. In order to
obtain possession of those parts of Russia which had not fallen under
the dominion of the Tartars and to cut the only outlet of Novgorod to
the Baltic Sea, King Erik had gathered together a great army and placed
it under the command of his son-in-law Birger. The King derived some
encouragement for his undertaking from a Bull of Pope Gregory IX,
addressed in 1237 to the Bishop of Upsala and summoning the Swedes to a
crusade against the Finns who had abandoned their Catholic faith under
the influence of their neighbors (that is, the Russians). The
interpretation of this papal message was clearly somewhat forced, but it
appeared to furnish the King of Sweden with some justification for his
aggression. Alexander had foreseen the danger. In 1239 he had organized
the defense of the routes from Novgorod to the sea and had placed the
defense of the routes from Novgorod to the sea and placed his sentries
on both sides of the Gulf of Finland. Pelguse, the chieftain of a local
tribe, a convert to Christianity, warned him of the disembarkment of the
Swedes on the banks of the Neva, and at once the prince hastened to meet
them after he first asked the blessing of his Archbishop. Reviewing his
troops before he set off he uttered the phrase, an allusion to the
Psalms, which has remained famous: "God is not on the side of force, but
of the just case, the pravda."
Before coming up with the enemy, Alexander's
troops had a difficult march before them over marshy land. Pressing on
swiftly they arrived on the banks of the Neva which were still shrouded
in mist. A few hours earlier at dawn Pelguse had experienced a curious
vision. He saw a boat with mysterious shapes on board coming slowly down
the river; it was the holy princes martyrs Boris and Gleb, amid their
heavenly oarsmen, coming to the help of their "brother Alexander".
Battle was joined at sunrise. It caught the
Swedes unawares; they were convinced the Novgorod forces, deprived of
the assistance of the Suzdal army, recently destroyed by the Mongols,
would be in no position to offer them resistance. Birger was installed
in a gold embroidered tent as were many of his knights, but the main
body of troops had not yet disembarked. The Russians carried out their
attacks with lightning like rapidity while Alexander in person wounded
Birger with a blow from a spear, his men at arms cut the bridges joining
the boats to the river bank. Panic seized the Swedes and the battle
ended with their flight in utter disorder.
Similar scenes occurred in the following year
when Alexander inflicted total defeat on the Knights of the Teutonic
Order who had acted in concert with the Swedes. They had seized Izborsk,
broken the truce of Pskov and burned the outskirts of that city before
the boyards opened the gates to them. Having crushed the Swedish
offensive, Alexander was ready to go to the aid of Pskov, but prevented
by the boyards from carrying out this plan he withdrew to his father at
Pereaslavl. It was not long before he was recalled by his subjects who
at last had realized the true extent of the danger. He returned with
regiments raised in the territory of Suzdal and set off for the western
frontier at the head of all the forces still remaining to Russia after
her conquest by the Mongols.
Alexander's fame as a warrior and saviour of
his people is best remembered in the Lake Chudskoye battle. The steel
clad Teutons driving a wedge through the lines and the Russians
retreating on to the ice of the lake and attacking the enemy on two
flanks, bringing down hundreds of knights and putting the others to
flight. Alexander's victory was complete and the German advance was
arrested for centuries. On the 5th of April 1242 the very existence of
Russia was saved. Once again those who were present at the battle
thought they saw heavenly armies appearing to bring aid to Prince
Alexander.
To preserve the integrity of the frontiers of
Novgorod it only remained for Alexander to put an end to the invasions
of the Lithuanians who in a poorly defended region had for many years
past waged a kind of guerrilla warfare. In 1242, as the Lithuanian
pressure increased, Alexander destroyed, one after another, seven of
their detachments by using in a defensive war his tactics of lightning
attack. In 1245, having repulsed a further invasion, he no longer had
anything to fear from this quarter. Lithuania gave up annoying her
neighbors.
But after 1246, quite new tasks occupied his
attention. The second period of his life was beginning; henceforth his
eyes were to be turned to the east.
His father, the Grand Prince Yaroslav, had just
died on his way back from a journey to Karakorum where he had been
summoned by the Grand Khan and presumably poisoned, that, at least, is
the assertion of the Russian chroniclers. The matter of succession could
not be settled without further intervention of the Tartar leaders. For
reasons that are unknown to us it is not the deceased prince's oldest
son but Alexander who was summoned, together with his brother Andrew, to
appear before the Asiatic overlords.
He was faced now with a tragic dilemma. Was the
conqueror of the Swedes and the Teutons, was the hero of the Neva and
Chudskoye Lake, to adopt the attitude of a humble vassal and to
recognize openly the loss of Russian independence, thus insulting the
death under torture already suffered by some of his near relations?
Alexander, an Orthodox prince, thinking solely of the good of his people
preferred to submit to the divine will and took counsel of the higher
clergy. Metropolitan Cyril gave his approval to the decision to leave,
on the condition that he worshipped no idols and did not deny his faith
in Christ.
Collaboration with the tartars was indeed at
the moment an historical necessity, - the nation could count on no help
from outside, the attitude of neighboring countries was entirely hostile
and the worth of her own warriors, which was sufficient to confront
enemies as courageous as the Swedes or the Teutons in equal numbers, did
not amount to much when faced with the hordes of nomads who carried all
before them as they advanced by their tens or even hundreds of
thousands.
Subsequently, the Russians have been able to
recognize the great services that Alexander rendered them by sacrificing
his pride on the alter of the fatherland. The Mongols themselves were
profoundly impressed by the conduct of a man whose reputation had
reached them some time beforehand, they granted him the honors due to
his rank and spared him the ordeal by fire and worship of the idols.
Nevertheless, they obliged him to undertake the interminable journey to
Karakorum through the deserts of Asia and only allowed him to return to
his native land after three years' absence. on three occasions during
the following years, Alexander had to return to his master's camp
situated to the north of the Azov Sea to arrange current affairs and
also to implore their mercy for the people under his government.
His elder brother was dead and his second
brother Andrew had taken flight after an attempted rising which ended,
as could be foreseen, in terrible reprisals; Alexander had become the
Grand Prince of Russia. It was his concern now to prevent further
invasions, to inspire the Grand Khan with confidence, to serve as
intermediary between him and the Russian people, and to prevent rash
insurrections even at the price of painful concessions.
This superhuman task was by no means made
easier by fresh attacks from Sweden, against which, in 1258, Alexander
was obliged to conduct a new campaign, victorious like the first, and
still less by the incessant unrest in Novgorod which, in 1259, assumed
an especially serious character when the Tartars were conducting a
general census of the population. Only the personal intervention of the
Grand Prince who went there at the head of an armed detachment and
lavished presents on the tartars, succeeded in preventing terrible
bloodshed.
Alexander allowed himself to be discouraged by
none of these difficulties. Having established himself at Vladimir, the
ancient city of Suzdal, famous for its numerous churches, he repeopled
the villages deserted by their inhabitants, rebuilt the churches and
monasteries and reopened the law courts. He arranged a marriage between
one of his sons and the daughter of the King of Norway in hope of thus
counterbalancing the power of the Swedes. In the solitude of his high
position he found a friend and counselor in the person of the
Metropolitan Cyril, a great churchman, who was able to understand and
advice him; Cyril had seen Kiev and Lavra of Pechersk in ruins; like
Alexander, he hoped to spare the nation further misfortune.
In 1242, when the exactions of the Tartars
provoked once more a popular rising, Alexander undertook his fourth
journey to the Tartar headquarters in order to ward off a punitive
expedition. For a whole year he did all in his power to pacify the Great
Khan and his henchmen; he even succeeded in dissuading the Tartars from
their plan of raising Russian regiments for a war against Persia. But he
had come to the end of his strength. On the return journey, over roads
made difficult by the autumn rains, he died at a monastery in November
1263. Before his last breath he gave up his princely rank and the
glories of this world in order to put on the habit of a monk.
"The sun has set over the land of Suzdal",
exclaimed Metropolitan Cyril in announcing the death of their leader to
the dismayed people. Alexander's funeral took place with great
solemnity. Legend asserts that when he was placed in the coffin and as
the Metropolitan endeavored to place between his fingers the prayer of
absolution, according to the custom of the Orthodox Church, the dead man
opened his hand and seized the sheet of parchment. Subsequently,
numerous miracles occurred at his tomb. He was canonized locally in 1380
and by the whole Russian Church at the Council of 1547. Five centuries
after his death, following the victorious outcome of his war against
Sweden, Peter the Great caused the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky to be
translated to the new capital of St. Petersburg where they lie today at
the Lavra that bears his holy name.
It is to St. Alexander Nevsky that the Russian
people are wont to address their prayers at times when great misfortunes
befall the nation and threaten its existence. Alexander is venerated as
a saint without having been a hermit, an ascetic or a martyr. "God has
glorified his righteous servant," writes the chronicler, "because he
worked much for the land of Russia and for Orthodox Christianity."
