Boris and Gleb

Boris and Gleb were sons of Grand Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of Rus. When Vladimir died in 1015, their elder brother Svyatopolk seized power in Kiev and resolved to destroy his rivals. Boris, returning from a campaign with his retinue, refused to raise his hand against his brother or plunge the land into civil war, and awaited his murderers in prayer; he was slain on the river Alta. The young Gleb was likewise deceived and killed shortly afterward. Because they chose to accept death rather than resist evil with evil, imitating the voluntary suffering of Christ, they were glorified as passion-bearers, the first saints canonized in Russia. Their relics were translated with great solemnity in 1072 and again in 1115, the event commemorated on May 2, and they are venerated as heavenly protectors of the Russian land.