Sviatoslav-⁠Gabriel of Vladimir

The Holy Right-⁠Believing Prince Sviatoslav-⁠Gavriil Vsevolodovich was prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Vladimir in the thirteenth century. He fell asleep on 3 February 1252 at Yuryev-⁠Polsky, where he spent his last years in fasting and prayer. He is commemorated on 3 February (16 February, new style) and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir.

He was born on 27 March 1196, the sixth son of Grand Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest and Maria, and received the baptismal name Gavriil. At four he was set as prince at Novgorod, where he remained, with interruptions, until 1210. In the division of his father's lands after the latter's death in 1212, he received Yuryev-⁠Polsky. In the war for the throne among his brothers he first joined Constantine, then Yuri, and took part in the battle of Lipitsa. He led the forces of Vladimir against the Volga Bulgars (1220), was sent to help the Novgorodians in Livonia (1222), then against the Mordvins (1226), and was prince at Pereyaslavl (1228-1234). He survived the battle of the Sit river in 1238, in which the army of Vladimir was destroyed by the Mongols; his brother Yaroslav then gave him Suzdal.

In 1230-1234 he raised at Yuryev-⁠Polsky the cathedral of Saint George, a church of white stone covered with carvings of saints and feasts; the chronicle says he was himself the master. Some scholars think he also directed other great constructions of the time, among them the Nativity cathedral at Suzdal. His wife, Evdokia Davidovna of Murom, entered in 1228 the monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb near Murom, where she remained until her death; they had a son, Dmitry.

In 1245-1246 he went to the Golden Horde, and after the death of his brother Yaroslav, in 1246, he received the great throne of Vladimir by the old right of succession. He gave his nephews, the seven Yaroslavichi, a land each, but they remained dissatisfied. In 1248 he was driven out by his nephew Mikhail Khorobrit, who soon died in battle with the Lithuanians; Sviatoslav then defeated the Lithuanians at Zubtsov. In 1250 he went again to the Horde, with his son Dmitry, to regain his throne, but without success. He withdrew to Yuryev-⁠Polsky and was buried in the cathedral of Saint George, at whose tomb, tradition says, healings took place. The old calendars honoured him as a saint.