Vsevolod III

Holy Right-⁠believing Vsevolod III, called the Big Nest, was Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1176 and passed away in 1212. The Church honours him among the right-⁠believing princes.

Baptized Demetrius, he was the son of Yuri Dolgoruky and the younger brother of Andrei Bogolyubsky. He owes his nickname "Big Nest" to his large family: twelve children, among them eight sons. In 1162 he was driven out by Andrei with his mother and brothers and went to Constantinople, to Emperor Manuel; he returned at fifteen and made peace with his brother. After Andrei's murder in 1174 and the death of his brother Michael in 1176, he fought alone for power against his nephews, defeated them and became grand prince.

The principality of Vladimir reached the peak of its power under him. He relied on the new towns (Vladimir, Pereslavl-⁠Zalessky, Dmitrov, Gorodets, Kostroma, Tver) and on a new social class, the nobility. The author of the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" calls him grand prince and says his army could "splash the Volga with oars and scoop the Don dry with helmets".

He was canonized as a right-⁠believing prince; he is commemorated on 15 April (28 April by the new calendar) and, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, on 23 June (6 July by the new calendar). His tomb in the Dormition cathedral was opened in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in 1869, in attempts at his canonization, and was found full of the bones of fifteen people.