In the East Slavic historical consciousness, the sacrifice of the first canonized Rus' saints Boris and Gleb (died in 1015) came to be viewed as a reflection of the sacrifice of the Old Testament figure Abel and as a model of the imitation of Christ concerning the renouncement of secular power. The author of this article advocates the following thesis: the fact that the first canonized East Slavic saints came from the secular ruling elite testifies to the attempts of the Rus' literati to stress the strong influence of recently adopted Christianity on politically important decisions in Kievan Rus', which allegedly achieved its religious “maturity” within the context of salvation history through this. The existence of the martyrs among the secular ruling elite, however, cannot be viewed as a specific element of East Slavic medieval culture alone because this type of sainthood was, despite local differences, present in recently Christianized lands on the northern and eastern periphery of Europe at the time.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1024483040
Boris and Gleb (died in 1015) were the first canonized East Slavic saints. In the East Slavic historical consciousness the sacrifice of Boris and Gleb came to be viewed as a reflection of the sacrifice of the Old Testament figure Abel and as a model of the imitation of Christ in renouncing secular power. Furthermore, the fact that the first canonized East Slavic saints came from the secular ruling elite testifies to the attempts of the Rus' literati to stress the strong influence of recently adopted Christianity on politically important decisions in Kievan Rus', pointing to its allegedly achieved religious “maturity” within the context of salvation history. The existence of the martyrs among the secular ruling elite cannot be viewed as a specific element of East Slavic medieval culture alone because this type of sainthood was present in recently Christianized lands on the northern and eastern periphery of Europe at the time. A similar passion-bearer cult among the Medieval Slavs can be found in the case of the murdered prince Jovan Vladimir of Dioclea (Duklja), who died between 1016-1018. He was murdered by his cousin Ivan Vladislav (1015-1018), tsar of Bulgaria. The life and martyrdom of Jovan Vladimir, depicted in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, is based on the New Testament image of the Good Shepherd serving as an example of a virtuous ruler following Christ “laying down his life” for his people. Despite the fact that Jovan Vladimir was the first Slavic ruler saint in the Western Balkans, his martyrdom — as opposed to the case of Boris and Gleb, who were subsequently venerated as protectors of their homeland and the Rurik dynasty — did not evolve into a politically significant cult. Nevertheless, the story about Jovan Vladimir could have exerted some (literary) influence on the Life of Simeon (Stefan Nemanja), written by the Serbian king Stefan Nemanjić (1196-1228) — the constitutive text which helped Nemanjići dynasty exert its spiritual reputation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1024491232
At the beginning of December 2019 the leader of the project published his scientific monograph titled Culture of Kievan Rus' and Christian Historical Consciousness. This monograph was published by the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana. The entire length of the monograph is 313 pages; it presents a novelty in the Slovene scientific community as the first-ever systematic study on the East Slavic (spiritual) culture between the 10th and 12th centuries. One of the most important chapters (pp. 203-243) within the central section of the monograph is dedicated to the Princes Boris and Gleb and the phenomenon of the ruler martyrs on the periphery of medieval Europe.
COBISS.SI-ID: 302873344