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Saint Rostislav-Michael, Great Prince of Kiev, was the son of
the Kievan Great Prince Saint Mstislav the Great (June 14), and the
brother of holy Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel (February 11, April 22, and
November 27). He was one of the great civil and churchly figures of the
mid-twelfth century.
His name is connected with the fortification and rise of Smolensk, and both the Smolensk principality and the Smolensk diocese.
Up
until the twelfth century the Smolensk land was part of the Kievan
realm. The beginning of its political separation took place in the year
1125, when holy Prince Mstislav the Great, gave Smolensk to his son
Rostislav (in Baptism Michael) as an inheritance from his father, the
Kievan Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh. Thanks to the work and efforts of
Saint Rostislav, the Smolensk principality, which he ruled for more
than forty years, expanded and was built up with cities and villages,
adorned with churches and monasteries, and became influential in Russian
affairs.
Saint Rostislav founded the cities of Rostislavl,
Mstislavl, Krichev, Propoisk, and Vasiliev among others. He was the
forefather of the Smolensk princely dynasty.
In 1136 Saint
Rostislav succeeded in establishing a separate Smolensk diocese. Its
first bishop was Manuel, installed between March-May of 1136 by
Metropolitan Michael of Kiev. Prince Rostislav issued an edict in the
city of Smolensk assuring Bishop Manuel that he would provide him with
whatever he needed. On September 30, 1150 Saint Rostislav also ceded
Cathedral Hill at Smolensk to the Smolensk diocese, where the Dormition
cathedral and other diocesan buildings stood.
Contemporaries
thought highly of the church construction of Prince Rostislav. Even the
sources that are inclined to report nothing more about it note that
“this prince built the church of the Theotokos at Smolensk.” The
Dormition cathedral, originally built by his grandfather, Vladimir
Monomakh, in the year 1101 was rebuilt and expanded under Prince
Rostislav. The rebuilt cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Manuel on the
Feast of the Dormition, August 15, 1150. Prince Rostislav was a
“builder of the Church” in a far wider sense: he endowed the Smolensk
Dormition church of the Mother of God, and transformed it from a city
cathedral into the ecclesiastical center of the vast Smolensk diocese.
Holy
Prince Rostislav was the builder of the Smolensk Kremlin, and of the
Savior cathedral at the Smyadynsk Boris and Gleb monastery, founded on
the place of the murder of holy Prince Gleb (September 5). Later his son
David, possibly fulfilling the wishes of his father, transferred the
old wooden coffins of Saints Boris and Gleb from Kievan Vyshgorod to
Smyadyn.
In the decade of the fifties of the twelfth century,
Saint Rostislav was drawn into a prolonged struggle for Kiev, which
involved representatives of the two strongest princely lines: the
Olgovichi and the Monomakhovichi.
On the Monomakhovichi side the
major contender to be Great Prince was Rostislav’s uncle, Yurii
Dolgoruky. Rostislav, as Prince of Smolensk, was one of the most
powerful rulers of the Russian land and had a decisive voice in military
and diplomatic negotiations.
For everyone involved in the
dispute, Rostislav was both a dangerous opponent and a desired ally, and
he was at the center of events. This had a providential significance,
since Saint Rostislav distinguished himself by his wisdom regarding the
civil realm, by his strict sense of justice and unconditional obedience
to elders, and by his deep respect for the Church and its hierarchy. For
several generations he was the bearer of the “Russkaya Pravda”
(“Russian Truth”) and of Russian propriety.
After the death of
his brother Izyaslav (November 13, 1154), Saint Rostislav became Great
Prince of Kiev, but he ruled Kiev at the same time with his uncle
Vyacheslav Vladimirovich. After the latter’s death, Rostislav returned
to Smolensk, ceding the Kiev princedom to his other uncle, Yurii
Dolgoruky, and he removed himself from the bloodshed of the princely
disputes. He occupied Kiev a second time on April 12, 1159 and he then
remained Great Prince until his death (+ 1167). More than once, he had
to defend his paternal inheritance with sword in hand.
The years
of Saint Rostislav’s rule occurred during one of the most complicated
periods in the history of the Russian Church. The elder brother of
Rostislav, Izyaslav Mstislavich, a proponent of the autocephaly of the
Russian Church, favored the erudite Russian monk Clement Smolyatich for
Metropolitan, and wanted him to be made Metropolitan by a council of
Russian bishops, without seeking the usual approval from the Patriarch
of Constantinople. This occurred in the year 1147.
The Russian
hierarchy basically supported Metropolitan Clement and Prince Izyaslav
in their struggle for ecclesiastical independence from Constantinople,
but several bishops headed by Saint Niphon of Novgorod (April 8), did
not recognize the autocephaly of the Russian metropolitanate and shunned
communion with it, having transformed their dioceses into independent
ecclesial districts, pending the resolution of this question. Bishop
Manuel of Smolensk also followed this course. Saint Rostislav understood
the danger which lay hidden beneath the idea of Russian autocephaly for
these times, which threatened the break-up of Rus. The constant
fighting over Kiev among the princes might also lead to a similar fight
over the Kievan See among numerous contenders, put forth by one princely
group or another.
The premonitions of Saint Rostislav were fully
justified. Yurii Dolgoruky, who remained loyal to Constantinople,
occupied Kiev in the year 1154. He immediately banished Metropolitan
Clement and petitioned Constantinople for a new Metropolitan. This was
to be Saint Constantine (June 5), but he arrived in Rus only in the year
1156, six months before the death of Yurii Dolgoruky (+ May 15, 1157).
Six months later, when Saint Rostislav’s nephew Mstislav Izyaslavich
entered the city on December 22, 1157, Saint Constanine was obliged to
flee Kiev, while the deposed Clement Smolyatich returned as
Metropolitan. Then a time of disorder began in Russia, for there were
two Metropolitans.
All the hierarchy and the clergy came under
interdict: the Greek Metropolitan suspended the Russian supporters of
Clement, and Clement suspended all the supporters of Constantine. To
halt the scandal, Saint Rostislav and Mstislav decided to remove both
Metropolitans and petition the Patriarch of Constantinople to appoint a
new archpastor for the Russian metropolitan See.
But this
compromise did not end the matter. Arriving in Kiev in the autumn of
1161, Metropolitan Theodore died in spring of the following year.
Following the example of Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky (July 4), who
supported his own fellow ascetic Bishop Theodore to be Metropolitan,
Saint Rostislav put forth his own candidate, who turned out to be the
much-suffering Clement Smolyatich.
The fact that the Great Prince
had changed his attitude toward Metropolitan Clement, shows the
influence of the Kiev Caves monastery, and in particular of
Archimandrite Polycarp. Archimandrite Polycarp, who followed the
traditions of the Caves (in 1165 he became head of the monastery), was
personally very close to Saint Rostislav.
Saint Rostislav had the
pious custom of inviting the igumen and twelve monks to his own table
on the Saturdays and Sundays of Great Lent, and he served them himself.
The prince more than once expressed the wish to be tonsured a monk at
the monastery of Saints Anthony and Theodosius, and he even gave orders
to build a cell for him.
The monks of the Caves, a tremendous
spiritual influence in ancient Rus, encouraged the prince to think about
the independence of the Russian Church. Moreover, during those years in
Rus, there was suspicion regarding the Orthodoxy of the bishops which
came from among the Greeks, because of the notorious “Dispute about the
Fasts” (the “Leontian Heresy”). Saint Rostislav’s pious intent to obtain
the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople for Metropolitan
Clement came to naught. The Greeks believed that appointing a
Metropolitan to the Kiev cathedra was one of their most important
prerogatives. This served not only the ecclesiastical, but also the
political interests of the Byzantine Empire.
In 1165 a new Greek
Metropolitan arrived at Kiev, John IV, and Saint Rostislav accepted him
out of humility and churchly obedience. The new Metropolitan, like his
predecessor, governed the Russian Church for less than a year (+ 1166).
The See of Kiev was again left vacant, and the Great Prince was deprived
of the fatherly counsel and spiritual wisdom of a Metropolitan. His
sole spiritual solace was the igumen Polycarp and the holy Elders of the
Kiev Caves monastery and the Theodorov monastery at Kiev, which had
been founded under his father.
Returning from a campaign against
Novgorod in the spring of 1167, Saint Rostislav fell ill. When he
reached Smolensk, where his son Roman was prince, relatives urged him to
remain at Smolensk. But the Great Prince gave orders to take him to
Kiev. “If I die along the way,” he declared, “put me in my father’s
monastery of Saint Theodore. If God should heal me, through the prayers
of His All-Pure Mother and Saint Theodosius, I shall take vows at the
monastery of the Caves.”
God did not fulfill Saint Rostislav’s
last wish to end his life as a monk of the holy monastery. The holy
prince died on the way to Kiev on March 14, 1167. (In other historical
sources the year is given as 1168). His body, in accord with his last
wishes, was brought to the Kiev Theodosiev monastery.
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