Cyril II of Rostov

Saint Cyril II, hierarch, was bishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl from 1230 until his death on 21 May 1262. Before that he had been hegumen of the Nativity of the Mother of God monastery in Vladimir. The Russian Church venerates him as a saint among the hierarchs and commemorates him on 23 May (5 June by the new calendar), in the Synaxis of the saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl.

He governed the diocese from 6 April 1230 (or 1231) almost to the day of his death. At the time of the Mongol-⁠Tatar invasion he took refuge at Beloozero. Returning from there, he found the body of Grand Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, who had fallen at the river Sit, and buried it.

His long pastoral work, in the hard years of the beginning of the Mongol-⁠Tatar yoke, was very fruitful. He restored many churches, ordered the life of the clergy and several times reconciled the princes. Twice in 1253 he went to the Horde, to Khan Berke, healed his sick son, after which he was given a yarlyk by which the annual tribute of the princes of Rostov and Yaroslavl was to go to the "house of the Most Holy Mother of God". He baptized a Mongol prince, Peter of the Horde. He left several writings: "On the Fear of God", "On the Heavenly Powers", "On Evil Spirits", "On the Toll-⁠houses".

Until the arrival of Metropolitan Cyril in Vladimir, Cyril of Rostov alone governed, for about ten years, all the dioceses of north-⁠eastern Rus. He died on 21 May 1262, in deep old age.