St. Prince Alexander Nevsky

Background

Conquests

Prince of Novgorod in 1236-1251 and Prince of Tver in 1247-52, from 1252 Grand Duke of Vladimir; son of the Prince Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich. Alexander was an outstanding Russian military commander and diplomat. By his victories over Sweden on the Neva river (1240), after which he was called Nevsky, and over the knights of the Teutonic order (1242) he secured the Russia's north-western borders. Thanks to his clever and skillful diplomacy the burden of Tatar-Mongolian occupancy was eased. Alexander Nevsky is said to have been a man of prayer and shortly before his death on 14 November 1263 he took the monastic habit. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1381, the canonization was never approved by the papacy, probably in part because Alexander refused to take religious lessons from the papal legates. Alexander Nevsky is a patron saint of Russian warriors and the city of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Feast day: 23 November.