Demetrius of Vladimir

Holy Right-⁠believing Prince Martyr Demetrius of Vladimir was an infant, born in the early 1230s in Vladimir, in a princely family. He died at the storming of Vladimir by the Tatars, on 7 February 1238. He is commemorated on 23 June, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir.

His father was the right-⁠believing prince martyr Vsevolod of Vladimir, his mother Princess Marina. His grandfather was the right-⁠believing Prince George (Yuri) Vsevolodovich, grand prince of Vladimir in the years 1212-1216 and 1218-1238, his grandmother the right-⁠believing princess martyr Agatha of Vladimir, and his great-⁠grandfather the Grand Prince Vsevolod (Demetrius) Yurievich the Big Nest. The historian M. V. Tolstoy describes the tragedy of 1238 as follows: on the Sunday of Meatfare, 7 February, a little after matins, the attack of the Tatars began. Bishop Mitrophan, together with the grand prince's family and the people, shut himself in the Dormition cathedral. Those gathered received from Bishop Mitrophan tonsure into monasticism, confessed, communed and prepared for death. The Tatars took the city, broke the doors of the church in which the bishop and the people were, laid fires around the church and inside and lit them. Then Bishop Mitrophan asked the Lord to receive in peace the souls of His servants and blessed all for the certain death. All those in the cathedral died of smoke and of the swords of the enemy.