LECTURE#3

3. What impact on Russia had the Tartars Yoke? What is Alexander Nevskii famous for?

Life of St. Alexander Nevsky

He was born on May 30, 1219 at Pereaslavl, a fief of his father, Prince Yaroslav, who was of the house of the Grand Prince of Suzdal. He spent the first years of his life in this small city which stood on the shores of a lake among the trees and meadows and was defended by a simple wooden palisade. His parents, real country nobility, were very devout, they contributed to the adornment of the cathedral and of a monastery established nearby on a hill and they were present at all the divine services celebrated in a small chapel which was connected with their residence by a wooden arcade.
Alexander was scarcely three years old when his father was elected prince of Novgorod and went to live two leagues away from this ever unruly city in order to preside over its fortunes. Here again the role of the Church seems at first to have been predominant. It was in the cathedral of St. Sophia itself that three times a week the council of boyars, the real masters of the free city, met together. But dissension reigned in this strange republic, incessant disputes occurred between the rich merchants and the craft guilds, between the nobles and the prince. As a child, Alexander was present at stormy scenes and at scuffles between citizens and his father''s followers. On four occasions he witnessed his father''s departure for his fief at Pereaslavl whence he was recalled again at once by his new subjects. At an early age Alexander thus came to know the horrors of internal dissension, the dangers which threatened his country, and became aware of the duties incumbent on its rulers. He developed a profound spiritual life. After mastering the first rudiments of his education he would become absorbed for hours at a time in reading the Old and New Testaments.
At the age of nine he was left alone at Novgorod with his elder brother Theodore, under the guardianship of certain nobles. His father, who had grown disgusted with his office, only returned for short periods and at one time the children themselves were obliged to flee under the leadership of a tutor. Meanwhile, Theodore, the older brother, died prematurely on the eve of his wedding, and when his father, in 1236, became by right of succession Grand Prince of Kiev (that is, ruler of all Russia) to Alexander fell the fief of Novgorod.
The adolescent found himself faced with terrible responsibilities. The following year occurred the great Mongol invasion of the north of Russia and it was only by a miracle that the barbarian hordes were halted before the walls of Novgorod in March 1238 and made their way back to the steppes. Alexander, called on to reign and to fight, henceforth devoted his whole life to the service of the nation; bowing to the divine will he sacrificed himself for the common good. But he did not renounce the world. In 1239 he married the daughter of the Prince of Polotsk, a feudal neighbor. He enjoyed the pleasure of the chase and hunted the bear armed only with a sling. But his duty always took first place with him.
His memorable reign at Novgorod lasted for 16 long years. Alexander made it his business to combat the separatist tendencies of the city and to strengthen its links with the central power. He endeavored to weaken the economic and political power of the boyars by a direct intervention in the administration of justice, by taking away from the important merchants the right of levying a tribute on furs over an immense region of the north for their own profit and by abolishing other unjustified privileges.
But it was particularly as the defender of the material and spiritual patrimony of the nation that he has rendered his name immortal by his victorious resistance to the Swedes, the Teutonic Knights and the Lithuanians and, subsequently, when he became Grand Prince, by establishing an acceptable modus vivendi with the Mongolian overlord.
His first victory over the Swedes, won in 1240 on the banks of the Neva, had world-wide repercussions and earned for him the name of Nevsky with which he is known to history. In order to obtain possession of those parts of Russia which had not fallen under the dominion of the Tartars and to cut the only outlet of Novgorod to the Baltic Sea, King Erik had gathered together a great army and placed it under the command of his son-in-law Birger. The King derived some encouragement for his undertaking from a Bull of Pope Gregory IX, addressed in 1237 to the Bishop of Upsala and summoning the Swedes to a crusade against the Finns who had abandoned their Catholic faith under the influence of their neighbors (that is, the Russians). The interpretation of this papal message was clearly somewhat forced, but it appeared to furnish the King of Sweden with some justification for his aggression. Alexander had foreseen the danger. In 1239 he had organized the defense of the routes from Novgorod to the sea and had placed the defense of the routes from Novgorod to the sea and placed his sentries on both sides of the Gulf of Finland. Pelguse, the chieftain of a local tribe, a convert to Christianity, warned him of the disembarkment of the Swedes on the banks of the Neva, and at once the prince hastened to meet them after he first asked the blessing of his Archbishop. Reviewing his troops before he set off he uttered the phrase, an allusion to the Psalms, which has remained famous: "God is not on the side of force, but of the just case, the pravda."
Before coming up with the enemy, Alexander''s troops had a difficult march before them over marshy land. Pressing on swiftly they arrived on the banks of the Neva which were still shrouded in mist. A few hours earlier at dawn Pelguse had experienced a curious vision. He saw a boat with mysterious shapes on board coming slowly down the river; it was the holy princes martyrs Boris and Gleb, amid their heavenly oarsmen, coming to the help of their "brother Alexander".
Battle was joined at sunrise. It caught the Swedes unawares; they were convinced the Novgorod forces, deprived of the assistance of the Suzdal army, recently destroyed by the Mongols, would be in no position to offer them resistance. Birger was installed in a gold embroidered tent as were many of his knights, but the main body of troops had not yet disembarked. The Russians carried out their attacks with lightning like rapidity while Alexander in person wounded Birger with a blow from a spear, his men at arms cut the bridges joining the boats to the river bank. Panic seized the Swedes and the battle ended with their flight in utter disorder.
Similar scenes occurred in the following year when Alexander inflicted total defeat on the Knights of the Teutonic Order who had acted in concert with the Swedes. They had seized Izborsk, broken the truce of Pskov and burned the outskirts of that city before the boyars opened the gates to them. Having crushed the Swedish offensive, Alexander was ready to go to the aid of Pskov, but prevented by the boyars from carrying out this plan he withdrew to his father at Pereaslavl. It was not long before he was recalled by his subjects who at last had realized the true extent of the danger. He returned with regiments raised in the territory of Suzdal and set off for the western frontier at the head of all the forces still remaining to Russia after her conquest by the Mongols.
Alexander''s fame as a warrior and saviour of his people is best remembered in the Lake Chudskoye battle. The steel clad Teutons driving a wedge through the lines and the Russians retreating on to the ice of the lake and attacking the enemy on two flanks, bringing down hundreds of knights and putting the others to flight. Alexander''s victory was complete and the German advance was arrested for centuries. On the 5th of April 1242 the very existence of Russia was saved. Once again those who were present at the battle thought they saw heavenly armies appearing to bring aid to Prince Alexander.
To preserve the integrity of the frontiers of Novgorod it only remained for Alexander to put an end to the invasions of the Lithuanians who in a poorly defended region had for many years past waged a kind of guerrilla warfare. In 1242, as the Lithuanian pressure increased, Alexander destroyed, one after another, seven of their detachments by using in a defensive war his tactics of lightning attack. In 1245, having repulsed a further invasion, he no longer had anything to fear from this quarter. Lithuania gave up annoying her neighbors.
But after 1246, quite new tasks occupied his attention. The second period of his life was beginning; henceforth his eyes were to be turned to the east.
His father, the Grand Prince Yaroslav, had just died on his way back from a journey to Karakorum where he had been summoned by the Grand Khan and presumably poisoned, that, at least, is the assertion of the Russian chroniclers. The matter of succession could not be settled without further intervention of the Tartar leaders. For reasons that are unknown to us it is not the deceased prince''s oldest son but Alexander who was summoned, together with his brother Andrew, to appear before the Asiatic overlords.
He was faced now with a tragic dilemma. Was the conqueror of the Swedes and the Teutons, was the hero of the Neva and Chudskoye Lake, to adopt the attitude of a humble vassal and to recognize openly the loss of Russian independence, thus insulting the death under torture already suffered by some of his near relations? Alexander, an Orthodox prince, thinking solely of the good of his people preferred to submit to the divine will and took counsel of the higher clergy. Metropolitan Cyril gave his approval to the decision to leave, on the condition that he worshipped no idols and did not deny his faith in Christ.
Collaboration with the tartars was indeed at the moment an historical necessity, - the nation could count on no help from outside, the attitude of neighboring countries was entirely hostile and the worth of her own warriors, which was sufficient to confront enemies as courageous as the Swedes or the Teutons in equal numbers, did not amount to much when faced with the hordes of nomads who carried all before them as they advanced by their tens or even hundreds of thousands.
Subsequently, the Russians have been able to recognize the great services that Alexander rendered them by sacrificing his pride on the alter of the fatherland. The Mongols themselves were profoundly impressed by the conduct of a man whose reputation had reached them some time beforehand, they granted him the honors due to his rank and spared him the ordeal by fire and worship of the idols. Nevertheless, they obliged him to undertake the interminable journey to Karakorum through the deserts of Asia and only allowed him to return to his native land after three years'' absence. on three occasions during the following years, Alexander had to return to his master''s camp situated to the north of the Azov Sea to arrange current affairs and also to implore their mercy for the people under his government.
His elder brother was dead and his second brother Andrew had taken flight after an attempted rising which ended, as could be foreseen, in terrible reprisals; Alexander had become the Grand Prince of Russia. It was his concern now to prevent further invasions, to inspire the Grand Khan with confidence, to serve as intermediary between him and the Russian people, and to prevent rash insurrections even at the price of painful concessions.
This superhuman task was by no means made easier by fresh attacks from Sweden, against which, in 1258, Alexander was obliged to conduct a new campaign, victorious like the first, and still less by the incessant unrest in Novgorod which, in 1259, assumed an especially serious character when the Tartars were conducting a general census of the population. Only the personal intervention of the Grand Prince who went there at the head of an armed detachment and lavished presents on the tartars, succeeded in preventing terrible bloodshed.
Alexander allowed himself to be discouraged by none of these difficulties. Having established himself at Vladimir, the ancient city of Suzdal, famous for its numerous churches, he repeopled the villages deserted by their inhabitants, rebuilt the churches and monasteries and reopened the law courts. He arranged a marriage between one of his sons and the daughter of the King of Norway in hope of thus counterbalancing the power of the Swedes. In the solitude of his high position he found a friend and counselor in the person of the Metropolitan Cyril, a great churchman, who was able to understand and advice him; Cyril had seen Kiev and Lavra of Pechersk in ruins; like Alexander, he hoped to spare the nation further misfortune.
In 1262, when the exactions of the Tartars provoked once more a popular rising, Alexander undertook his fourth journey to the Tartar headquarters in order to ward off a punitive expedition. For a whole year he did all in his power to pacify the Great Khan and his henchmen; he even succeeded in dissuading the Tartars from their plan of raising Russian regiments for a war against Persia. But he had come to the end of his strength. On the return journey, over roads made difficult by the autumn rains, he died at a monastery in November 1263. Before his last breath he gave up his princely rank and the glories of this world in order to put on the habit of a monk.
"The sun has set over the land of Suzdal", exclaimed Metropolitan Cyril in announcing the death of their leader to the dismayed people. Alexander''s funeral took place with great solemnity. Legend asserts that when he was placed in the coffin and as the Metropolitan endeavored to place between his fingers the prayer of absolution, according to the custom of the Orthodox Church, the dead man opened his hand and seized the sheet of parchment. Subsequently, numerous miracles occurred at his tomb. He was canonized locally in 1380 and by the whole Russian Church at the Council of 1547. Five centuries after his death, following the victorious outcome of his war against Sweden, Peter the Great caused the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky to be translated to the new capital of St. Petersburg where they lie today at the Lavra that bears his holy name.
It is to St. Alexander Nevsky that the Russian people are wont to address their prayers at times when great misfortunes befall the nation and threaten its existence. Alexander is venerated as a saint without having been a hermit, an ascetic or a martyr. "God has glorified his righteous servant," writes the chronicler, "because he worked much for the land of Russia and for Orthodox Christianity."

Taken from: http://sangha.net/messengers/nevsky.htm

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THE TARTAR YOKE

If the Byzantine heritage has had an important influence on the development of Russian history and culture, so has another heritage, coming from another direction and leaving behind more uncertain benefits. The destinies of nations, like the fates of individuals, are sometimes profoundly affected by events over which they have no control. The conquest by the Mongols, in the thirteenth century, of a large portion of the then known world, including Russia, is a good example of the decisive part which the contingent and the unforeseen play in human affairs.

The Mongols were a mixed group of peoples who first enter upon the world state in the area of North China and Eastern Siberia. They were nomads who raised cattle and moved about on fleet horses. They were fierce warriors who had perfected the art of horseback Blitzkrieg. They were always on the move, looking for better grazing pastures and sedentary settlements to plunder. According to tradition the various Mongol chiefs held a council in 1206 which decided to establish an empire under the leadership of Ghingis Khan. So they embarked on a vast program of conquest. In 1207 they took southern Siberia, followed by long wars in China and Turkestan. By the time of Ghingis Khan''s death in 1227 they had conquered China, Siberia, central Asia and Trans-Caucasia.

Although a flying detachment of Mongol horsemen invaded Russia and defeated her armies in 1223, giving the Russians a taste of what was to come, nothing happened until 13 years later. In 1236, however, Batu, the grandson of the great Khan, decided it was time to go on the warpath again. A large Mongol army under Batu crossed the Urals and wiped out the Volga Bulgars. This time it was more than fun and games. The Mongols brought wagons, wives, children and cattle with them. Although the Russians did not at first realize it, the Mongols apparently planned to stay for a while. But they made themselves rather unwelcome by destroying cities, towns and settlements. Yet the Russian princes made no effort to unite and organize for the defense.

The princes of Riazon, the first Russian land to be invaded, pleaded vainly for assistance from the grand duke of Vladimir. The city of Riazan was captured in December 1237, pillaged and burned. A similar fate befell Kalomma, Moscow, Suzdal, Vladimir, Rostov, Yaroslav and Tver. The next spring 14 more Russian cities fell to the conqueror. By 1239 most of Russia except Novgorod and the northwest had been subdued. In 1241 Batu crossed the Carpathians and invaded Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Croatia and the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic. Batu was about to threaten Western Europe in 1242 when he suddenly turned back and retreated to the Black Sea steppes. For the next 240 years the Mongols stayed in Russia.

In the Black Sea area Batu established the autonomous Mongol state of the Golden Horde with the newly built capital of Sarai on the lower Volga. This state included the Russian principalities, the land of the Volga Bulgars, the Black Sea steppes inhabited by the Cumans, the northern Caucasus, Western Siberia and Turkestan. The Golden Horde was at first a province of the Mongol empire. This fact forced many Russian princes to travel all the way to Karakorum in Mongolia to consult with the great Khan himself over such things as tribute, conformation of office and redress of grievances. But dissension eventually weakened the empire and its autonomous states became warring factions.

In the fifteenth century it became apparent that the Mongol empire could no longer hold together. At the same time the Russians finally succeeded in overcoming their ancient disorders. and building up a unified state under the leadership of the Moscow princes. The disintegration of the Golden Horde and them consolidation of Muscovy culminated in what is traditionally known as the "liberation from the Tatar yoke," an event that took place at the end of the fifteenth century.

The Mongols, as a nation, were notably free from racial and religious exclusiveness. They mixed willingly with the Chinese, absorbed and assimilated the Cumans and other nomadic peoples whom they had conquered. In the fourteenth century they officially embraced Islam. With the weakening of the Golden Horde, many Tatar chieftains and dignitaries entered the Russian service and were eventually merged with the Russian nobility.

The khans of the Golden Horde were stern masters. The principal objective of their Russian policy was recruitment of men for the army and the raising of revenue to meet the costs of administration and imperial expansion. Russian soldiers are known to have fought in the ranks of the conquerors. The Russian princes continued to draft men into their armed forces as they did before the invasion, but under the Mongol rule these troops were largely at the disposal of the khan.

Exaction of tribute was one of the chief concerns of the Golden Horde in dealing with the Russian dependency. There was a variety of new taxes and their assessment was based on census taken by the Tartars. Collection of tribute was at first in the hands of Mongol officials, but late this function was handed over to Russian grand dukes and princes. The most important direct tax was the "vykhod". Its total amount was determined by the Mongols and was then assessed by the local grand duke among the princes under his jurisdiction, who made the final allocation and then collected it. Direct extortion''s were heavy, among them being the provision of transportation, lodgings and maintenance for Mongol officials. No less burdensome were the frequent trips the princes had to make to Mongolia and Sarai to appear before the Khan. They usually brought their families and suitable presents for the Khan and his officials.

While the devastation wrought by the invasion was great, the conquerors made surprisingly few formal changes in the pattern of the Russian government. But one change was unmistakable: the source of all power was now the sovereign will of the khan of the Golden Horde. This meant in practice that the Russian princes had to be confirmed in office by their new suzerain and that all major issues were referred to the Golden Horde. The Mongols, however, seldom used their absolute powers in an arbitrary fashion. As a rule they showed respect for Russian traditional institutions and confirmed in office the princes who appeared to be entitled to it by precedent and custom. When more than one prince appeared to claim the position the khan usually selected the prince who promised to raise the most tribute. Thus the Russian people usually received a higher tax rate along with a new prince.

The dynastic position of some of the ruling families, as for instance the princes of Moscow, was strengthened by increasing the financial burdens of the people whom they governed. In many instances the princes came to be looked upon, not as spokesmen of local interests before the Mongol power, but as agents of the khan enforcing his edicts at the expense of the local people.*Another significant change brought by the Mongols was the undermining of the constitutional position of the veche. After the conquest the veche was deprived of its traditional powers of making agreements with the princes and of expelling or inviting them. This loss of authority, combined with the devastation suffered by the commercial cities and the decline of trade during the opening decades of the Mongol rule, was responsible for the eclipse of the veche. With the exception of Novgorod and Pskov the veche ceased to meet in the middle of the fourteenth century.

The church fared poorly during the invasion. Monasteries and houses of worship were pillaged and burned, bishops and priests were butchered. After the conquest, however, the policies of the Golden Horde towards the church were more tolerant, humane and politically expedient. The status of the church was determined by decrees of the khan. Higher clergy like the princes were confirmed in office by the khan and the church agreed to pray publicly for the Mongol ruler and his family.

In return the church and the clergy were exempt from taxes and military service. Anti-church propaganda was punishable by death and the church and its property was protected by the khan''s agents. This cooperation proved to be mutually beneficial. It made if easier for the Mongols to rule Russia and its allowed the church to grow and increase its land holdings. In the long run it created difficulties between church and state by strengthening the material power and independence of the church.

Although trade was at first hampered by the invasions and disorders, it soon recovered and was actively promoted by the Mongols. Most of the trade was controlled by the Mongols but many native traders had a share of the profits. Trade with Western Europe was carried on chiefly through Novgorod, which was an outpost of the Hanseatic League.

The internal strife that developed in the Mongol empire towards the end of the thirteenth century and continued intermittently until its final disintegration offered the Russian princes opportunities to reassert their independence. In the 1360''s a rebellion in southern China led to the severance of that territory and the breakdown of the Mongol empire. These difficulties led t young prince, Dimitry of Moscow, to top payment of the tribute. The khan then tried to force payment with a punitive invasion. The Russians had no choice but to fight. Dimitry issued a call to arms, but few of Russia''s princes responded. Yet enough of an army was raised to give the Russian forces under Dimitry an unexpected victory in 1380 at the Battle of Kulikovo near the Don. Dimitry thus received the name of Donskoy. This battle was the first and only major Russian victory over the Golden Horde and it added stature and luster to the grand dukes of Moscow.

However, the Tartars soon recovered and reasserted their domination of Russia. They now interfered more directly in Russian affairs than before Kulikovo. More revolts and punitive expeditions followed for another whole century. Finally in the second half of the fifteenth century Moscow grew stronger and the Mongols weaker. The leading Russian prince of this period was Ivan III of Moscow (1462-1505). The Golden Horde was ruled from 1460 to 1480 by Khan Akhmad.

Friction, presumably resulting from Russia''s failure to provide tribute, led to a major Mongol invasion in 1472 which was accompanied by the destruction and burning of a number of cities. Two years latter Moscow was visited by a large Tartar embassy and a huge trade delegation comprising some 3000 merchants. New difficulties soon arose thereafter. When negotiations failed, Akhmad concluded an alliance with the king of Poland and the grand duke of Lithuania and in 1480 invaded Russia.

Ivan was reluctant to accept the challenge but was finally persuaded to assume command of the troops. The two found themselves facing each other across the Ugra River, a narrow stream that formed the boundary between Russia and Lithuania. They just stood there glaring at each other for months. finally in November Akhmad suddenly retreated. Why? Well his Polish and Lithuanian allies failed to send troops and a rival Tartar chieftain attacked one of his camps which contained Akhmad''s wives and family. Soon after that Akhmad was assassinated by one of his countrymen. In this undramatic and unheroic fashion the "Tartar yoke" fell from the neck of Russia. The Golden Horde survived until 1502, when the Crimean Tartars delivered the final blow which terminated its existence as a state.

In conclusion we might ask ourselves what influence the Tartar-Mongols had on Russia.

Two and one half centuries of foreign rule are bound to leave a profound imprint on a subjugated nation. The influence of the Mongol tradition may be traced in the crude methods by which Russia''s unification was achieved in the fifteenth century and in the character of the absolutist government that was to rule her for over 300 years. The conditions created by the invasion were probably instrumental in bringing about the destruction of the veche, although there is no assurance that this rudimentary form of democracy would have survived and would have grown into an institution of truly representative government even if the Tartars had never come to Russia. The military organization and administrative practices of Muscovy were probably also affected by Mongol institutions.

The social effects of the Mongol rule are more pronounced. There was a great deal of intermarriage and social intercourse between the Russian princes and members of the Russian upper class, on the one hand, and their opposite numbers in the Golden Horde, on the other. As the fortunes of Sarai declined and those of Moscow increased many Mongol notable switched their allegiance to Muscovy. Many of these people became important Russian landowners. Many Mongols also entered the /Russian administrative and military services. At the end of the 17th century about 17% of the Russian upper class were of Eastern, chiefly Mongol, origin.

There were also important cultural effects. Mongol domination retarded Russia''s cultural development. It delayed for at least two centuries any contact between Russia and Europe, which was at that time the only fountain of progress and enlightenment. The Russian Middle Ages were barren of achievement in any field of creative endeavor, except perhaps that of icon painting, which reached high standards in the fifteenth century.

In the economic field the most spectacular development was that of the invasion. It took time before the Russian economy recovered from the devastation wrought, although the extremely low technical and economic levels prevalent during this period facilitated the task. Foreign trade, which came to a standstill with the conquest, revived substantially thereafter. There was little progress in agriculture and industry, but there is no evidence that these pursuits sank below their modest pre-Mongol level. As with cultural endeavor it was a case of stagnation and arrested development rather than of deterioration and decline. The Russian economy, however, was severely affected by two manifestations of the Mongol rule: exaction of tribute, often exorbitant ones, and warlike action that took the form either of invasions of Russia or of foreign wars in which the Russians were forced to participate side by side with their masters.

The blending of the Byzantine tradition embodied in the church and Mongol ideas and administrative usages paved the way for the establishment of the semi-oriental absolutism of the Muscovite tsars. The window on Europe, which might have admitted the refreshing breeze of western influences, was still tightly shut, while the deadening storms from the Asiatic steppes swept freely through the length and breadth of the land. Moscow autocracy of the 16th century was no different form that of the Tartar Khans. The landed aristocracy became servile to the Moscow grand dukes and tsars. the veche lost the right to choose and expel princes - a function which had been taken over by the khans. The common people began to drift quite noticeably into the dark night of serfdom.

Taken from http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/russia/lectures/07tartar.html

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LIFE OF ST. ANDREI (ANDREW) RUBLEV

(c.1360-70 - c.1427-30)

St. Andrew (Andrei) Rublev (pronounced roob-lyof) wrote and proclaimed the Gospel with paints rather than with words � he was an iconographer (a person who writes/paints icons). His icons have been regarded for almost 600 years as so perfectly shining forth the divine splendor and radiance, joy and love�witnesses to the truth of Orthodoxy�that other iconographers have been directed to use his icons as models. He worked with the best iconographers of his day, painting some of the most important churches in northern Russia. Through his most famous icon, the Holy Trinity, he has eloquently preached a beautiful sermon about the nature of the Holy Trinity. St. Andrew is frequently depicted holding this Holy Trinity icon. The Orthodox Church teaches that the divine Word and Light can be proclaimed just as powerfully in written-in-paint icons, as in written-in-ink words. "We proclaim our salvation in words and images [icons]," we sing in the Kontakion for Orthodoxy Sunday.
How do iconographers fulfill such a high calling�to let God speak to people through their icons? It is by working together with divine grace, and by living a holy, pure and simple life. And how does one live a holy life? Most of the saints, including St. Andrew, lived to serve God above all else, and worked hard to overcome their self-centeredness (that gets in the way of God speaking through them) by strict fasting, abstinence, prayer, frequent reception of the Holy Mysteries, helping the needy, and by cultivating the spiritual attitudes of humility, patience, joy, peace and love. Sometimes, as with St. Andrew, the Holy Spirit leads persons to express great love for God and His creation by becoming monks. St. Andrew further expressed his love of Divine Beauty in his painting/writing of icons, through which God still speaks loudly and clearly to people today.
St. Andrew was born near Moscow, and as a youth, knew St. Sergius of Radonezh, who had founded the Monastery of the Holy Trinity about 45 miles from Moscow. It was at this monastery, now known as the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, in the city of Sergiev Posad, where St. Andrew became a monk, and where he has long been venerated as a saint. He painted his Holy Trinity icon for the Holy Trinity Church there, where St. Sergius� tomb still is today. St. Andrew also lived, worked and is buried at the Savior-Andronikov Monastery in Moscow. Those who knew St. Andrew testify to his strict ascetic and holy life and his great love for all. God granted him to have visions and contemplate the immaterial Divine Light. After his repose, he appeared in a vision, clothed in radiant garments, to his friend and fellow monk-iconographer, Daniel Chornii. Although many have testified to his sanctity, the greatest testimonies are his icons themselves. None but a true saint could have produced such marvels of beauty and truth.
St. Andrei''s relics are buried beneath the floor of the Savior Cathedral of the Andronikov Monatery in Moscow, where the blessed one was living and working at the time of his repose, and have yet to be unearthed. Although he had painted the entire interior of the Savior Cathedral, nothing whatsoever remains of these fresco icons. Probably what saved the Andronikov Monastery from total destruction during the Soviet era was its establishment as the site of the Andrei Rublev Musem of icons. Although many of its icons have been moved to the Tretyakov Gallery, may beautiful icons still remain here. The Savior Cathedral was returned to the Church and reopened in May, 1991, and the monastery itself has finally been returned to the Church and re-opened as a monastery relatively recently.

This article was written by Jane M. deVyver, M.Th., Ph.D., (http://www.firebirdvideos.com/saintslives/lifeofrublev.htm)