Peter of Rostov

Venerable Peter of Rostov (died 1290), also called Peter Ordynsky, was a tsarevich of the Golden Horde, nephew of Khan Berke, who came to Rus', received the Orthodox faith at Rostov, founded the Petrovsky monastery on Lake Nero and died a monk there. He was numbered among the saints at the Council of 1547 in the time of Metropolitan Macarius, among the venerable ones. He is commemorated (Old Style) on 30 June and on 23 May, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl. The Russian noble family Chirikov descends from him.

Beginnings

He was the son of Tsarevich Orda-⁠Ejen, grandson of Jochi and great-⁠grandson of Genghis Khan, nephew of Berke, khan of the Golden Horde; his name was Dair Kaidagul. In 1253 Bishop Cyril of Rostov came to Sarai, to Khan Batu, on business, and told much about the miracles at the relics of Saint Leontius of Rostov. When, some years later, one of the tsareviches fell ill in the Horde, the court remembered Cyril's stories and summoned him to Sarai. On the way home, according to the "Tale of Blessed Peter", Tsarevich Dair overtook him and begged him to take him along to Rostov; perhaps the boy had been drawn by the stories of miracles and of the rich city, one of the foremost in north-⁠eastern Rus'.

At Rostov Dair received Orthodox baptism and was given the name Peter. Khan Berke seems to have taken his nephew's act with understanding and provided for him according to his lineage, in the Tale "with sleighs of silver". Yet, in the view of A. S. Khoroshev, the tsarevich had fallen into disfavour with Berke and fled the Horde, finding refuge at Rostov.

The monastery and friendship with the prince

For all his wealth and noble line, Peter was distinguished, according to his Life, by modesty, silence, thought of God and love of prayer. Once he had a vision: the Apostles Peter and Paul appeared to him, and then he built on the shore of Lake Nero a monastery, also called the Petrovskaya. Then the friendship arose between Tsarevich Peter and Prince Boris of Rostov; the Tale says that the prince loved him so much that he would not even eat bread without him. Bishop Ignatius, successor of Saint Cyril, declared them publicly, under the vaults of the church, brothers by adoption. Boris's children called Peter uncle. The prince chose for him a wife, the daughter of the foremost nobleman of Rostov, and he had many descendants. After his wife's death he received monastic tonsure in the monastery he had founded.

Veneration

His veneration as a saint began immediately after his death, about 1290 to 1291. Officially he was numbered among the saints at the Council of 1547. Several copies survive of the Tale of "Blessed" Peter, the oldest, in the opinion of V. O. Klyuchevsky, from the beginning of the fourteenth century.