The Holy Prince Theodore of Smolensk and Yaroslavl, nicknamed the Black, was born in the terrible year of the Mongol invasion for Russia, around 1237-1239, and was baptized in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratilat, especially revered by Russian warrior princes. Holy Prince Theodore was destined to become famous in the Russian land with his military exploits. In 1239, when, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the holy warrior-martyr Mercury (November 24) delivered Smolensk from Batu's captivity, the boy Theodore was not in the city: he was taken away and sheltered in a safe place during the war. In the following year, 1240, his father, Prince Rostislav, great-grandson of the blessed Prince Rostislav of Smolensk and Kiev, died (+ 1168; commemorated on March 14).
The elder brothers, the heirs, divided their father's lands among themselves, allocating a small Mozhaisk to the younger boy Theodore. His childhood was spent here, where he studied the Holy Scriptures, church service and military art.
In 1260, the Holy Prince Theodore married Maria Vasilyevna, daughter of the Holy Prince Vasily Yaroslavsky (+ 1249; commemorated on July 3), and became Prince of Yaroslavl. They had a son, Michael, but soon Saint Theodore was widowed. He spent a lot of time in military labors and campaigns, his son was raised by his mother-in-law, Princess Xenia.
In 1277, the united squads of Russian princes, among whom was St. Theodore, in alliance with Tatar troops, participated in a campaign in the Ossetian land and in the capture of the "glorious city of their Tetyakov". The Allied forces won a complete victory in this war. The fact is that since the time of St. Alexander Nevsky (+ 1263; November 23), the khans of the Golden Horde, seeing the unbroken spiritual and military power of Orthodox Russia, were forced to change their attitude towards it, began to attract Russian princes to the union, turn to them for military help. The Russian Church providentially used this rapprochement for the Christian enlightenment of foreigners. Already in 1261, through the efforts of St. Alexander Nevsky and Metropolitan Kirill III, a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was established in Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. In 1276, the Council of Constantinople, chaired by Patriarch John Vekka (1275-1282), answered questions from the Russian Bishop of Sarai, Theognost, about the procedure for baptizing Tatars and accepting Monophysites and Nestorians among them into Orthodoxy. During these years, the holy Prince Theodore found himself in the Horde. Distinguished by military exploits in the Ossetian campaign, he aroused the special favor of Khan Mengu-Temir, who was respectful of the Orthodox Church, who issued the first khan's label on church immunity to Metropolitan Kirill.
Saint Theodore had to return to the Horde. The queen, the wife of Khan Mengu-Temir, "loves him very much and wants her daughter to marry him." Such a marriage would be of great importance for Russia. The khan did not agree to it for a long time, considering the Russian princes to be his "ulus" (i.e. vassals, subjects). To marry a daughter to a Russian prince meant to recognize his equal dignity. And even more importantly, it meant for the khan to recognize the superiority of Orthodoxy, because before the wedding it was necessary for the Tatar princess to receive Holy Baptism. The khan agreed to this, the alliance with Russia was too important for him: "and he ordered the princess to be baptized for Prince Theodore, and ordered her to be baptized first, but did not order the Orthodox faith to be desecrated." This is how Saint Theodore married the daughter of a powerful khan, christened Anna. "The tsar greatly revered him and ordered him to sit opposite himself, built him a palace, gave him princes and bolyars to serve."
There, in the Horde, St. Theodore the Black had his sons, the Holy Prince David (+ 1321) and the Holy Prince Constantine. Russian Russian Orthodox Church and the great influence that St. Fedor acquired in the Horde, he used for the glory of the Russian land and the Russian Church. Orthodoxy was increasingly strengthened among the Tatars, the Horde adopted Russian customs, morals and piety. Russian Russian merchants, architects, and craftsmen carried Russian culture to the shores of the Don, Volga, and Urals and further to Mongolia. Until now, archaeologists have found Orthodox icons, crosses, and lamps throughout the territory of the former Golden Horde, which became part of Russia. Thus began the great missionary movement of the Russian Church to the East, enlightening all tribes to the Great Ocean with the light of the gospel truth.
Saint Theodore lived in a Barn until 1290, when "news came to him from Russia, from the city of Yaroslavl, that his first son, Prince Mikhail, had passed away." Having given the prince rich gifts and a large squad, the khan released him to Russia. Having once again become a prince in Yaroslavl, Saint Theodore began to zealously take care of the strengthening and improvement of his city and principality.
In 1296, a bloody fratricidal war almost broke out between two groups of princes: On one side were St. Theodore and Grand Duke Andrew, on the other – St. Michael of Tver (+ 1318; commemorated on November 22) and St. Daniel of Moscow (+ 1303; commemorated on March 4). But the bloodshed was prevented by God's help. At the Vladimir Congress of Princes (1296), Bishop Simeon of Vladimir and Bishop Izmail of Sarai managed to bring peace to both sides.
St. Theodore the Black's ties with his homeland, Smolensk, were not severed, although it was not easy for him to reign there. So, in 1297, Saint Theodore went on a campaign to Smolensk to restore his legal rights to the Smolensk principality, captured by his nephew. But this time he did not manage to take the city and become the Prince of Smolensk again.
Shortly after that campaign, the holy warrior prince fell ill. On September 18, 1299, the saint of God ordered him to be transferred to the Transfiguration Monastery and took monastic vows.
During the very end of the rite, Saint Theodore asked to interrupt the rite. With the blessing of the abbot, in fulfillment of the dying man's will, the prince was taken out to the monastery courtyard, where many Yaroslavl residents had already gathered. "And the prince confessed to all the people if he had sinned against anyone or held a dislike for anyone. And whoever sinned against him and was hostile to him – blessed and forgave everyone and took the blame for everything before God and people." Only after that, the humble warrior decided to complete his unusual and difficult life path by adopting an Angelic image.
All night the abbot and the brethren prayed over the holy prince. At two o'clock in the morning, they started calling for matins. Guided by the Holy Mysteries of Christ, Saint Theodore lay silently on his monastic bed. When the monks began the third "Glory" of the Psalter, he made the sign of the cross over himself and gave his soul to the Lord. His appearance in the coffin was unusual: "It is wonderful to see the blessed one lying on his bed, not as dead, but as alive. His face shone, like the sun's rays, decorated with honest gray hairs, showing off his spiritual purity and gentle heart."
After him, his son, Saint David (+ 1321), ruled in Yaroslavl. The second of his younger sons, Saint Constantine, apparently died earlier. The church veneration of the holy Prince Theodore in the Yaroslavl land began shortly after his death. In 1322-1327, with the blessing and order of Bishop Prokhor of Rostov, the famous Theodore Gospel was written and decorated with miniatures in memory of the revered bishop St. Theodore. Bishop Prokhor was formerly the abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery in Yaroslavl. He probably knew the holy prince personally, could have witnessed his tonsure and national repentance. Historians think that the best miniatures sewn into this precious manuscript belonged to an earlier Gospel, the owner of which was St. Theodore the Black himself and which he brought with him to Yaroslavl as a blessing from his native Smolensk.
On March 5, 1463, the relics of the holy Prince Theodore and his children, David and Constantine, were found in Yaroslavl.
The life of the Holy Prince Theodore the Black was written shortly after the relics were found by Hieromonk Anthony of the Yaroslavl Spassky Monastery with the blessing of Metropolitan Philip I of Moscow and All Russia. Another edition of the life was written by Andrey Yuryev in the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery. The third, most detailed life of St. Theodore was included in the "Book of the Royal Genealogy", compiled under Tsar John the Terrible and Metropolitan Makaria.
The Church remembers the blessed Princes Theodore of Smolensk and his children David and Konstantin, the Yaroslavl Miracle Workers
02.10.2024, 06:00