Rt. Blv. Great Prince Alexander Nevsky

Prince of Novgorod at nineteen, Alexander won his surname on the Neva in 1240, routing a Swedish force, and in 1242 destroyed the Teutonic Knights on the ice of Lake Peipus — victories the Church remembers as the defense of Orthodoxy against crusading pressure from the West, in the spirit of his reported words that God is 'not in power but in truth.' Toward the overwhelming might of the Mongol Horde he chose a different courage: repeated humiliating journeys to the khans, tribute, and patient diplomacy that spared exhausted Rus annihilating punitive campaigns, while he refused the popes' offers of alliance at the price of union. Returning from his last embassy to the Horde in 1263, he fell ill and died at Gorodets, having first taken monastic vows with the name Alexis. Canonized in 1547, he remains a beloved patron of soldiers and statesmen.