Gleb of Murom

Gleb Vladimirovich, remembered in the church as Gleb of Murom and as one of the holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, was a prince of Kievan Rus' in the early eleventh century. He was a son of Grand Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich, known as Vladimir the Great, the ruler who oversaw the official conversion of Rus' to Christianity in the late tenth century. Contemporary chronicles do not record Gleb's year of birth; later estimates place him among Vladimir's younger sons. His baptismal name was David. The identity of his mother is not settled in the sources: some later traditions associate Boris and Gleb with Anna Porphyrogenita, Vladimir's Byzantine consort, while other accounts name a different wife. Gleb was given the northeastern town of Murom, on the Oka River, as his princely seat, and it is from that assignment that he is often styled Gleb of Murom.

When Vladimir died in 1015, a struggle for the Kievan throne followed among his sons. Sviatopolk, who occupied Kiev, moved to remove possible rivals. According to the Primary Chronicle and the hagiographical Tale of Boris and Gleb, Gleb was summoned from Murom—either by a deceitful message that his father still lived and wished to see him, or by an invitation from Sviatopolk. He traveled by river toward the Dnieper. Near Smolensk, at a place called Smyadyn, he was met by Sviatopolk's agents. The narratives describe Gleb as a youth who refused to resist his brother and who spent his last hours in prayer. He was killed by his cook Torchin at the instigation of the assassins. The date traditionally assigned to the murder is 5 September 1015. His elder brother Boris had already been slain. The two deaths became the founding martyrdoms of the Rus' church.

Gleb's body was at first buried near the site of the killing. Under Yaroslav the Wise, who defeated Sviatopolk and took Kiev, the remains of both brothers were gathered at Vyshhorod, a princely residence just north of Kiev. A wooden church, later rebuilt in stone, was erected over the tomb. Reports of miracles at the shrine circulated in the eleventh century. In 1072 the relics were solemnly translated in the presence of the ruling princes Izyaslav, Sviatoslav, and Vsevolod and of the metropolitan of Kiev; a further translation took place in 1115. These ceremonies mark the public recognition of Boris and Gleb as saints. They were venerated as passion-bearers (strastoterptsy): Christians who, without being strictly confessors under pagan persecution, accepted a violent death in imitation of Christ and declined to shed blood in a fratricidal war. Their cult spread rapidly through the East Slavic lands and into the wider Orthodox world. Numerous churches and monasteries, often called Borisoglebsky, were dedicated to them.

The historical record beyond the chronicle and the early lives is thin. Little can be said with certainty about Gleb's rule in Murom or about any marriage or children; the hagiography presents him as a young unmarried prince. He was not a monk, a bishop, or a holder of patriarchal or papal office. In the liturgical calendar of the Orthodox Church he is commemorated on 5 September (his martyrdom), together with Boris on 24 July, and on 2 May (the translation of the relics). Boris and Gleb became heavenly patrons of the Rus' land and of its princes, and later of the Russian state. Icons customarily depict the two brothers as youthful princes holding crosses or martyr's palms. Their story, whatever the exact political circumstances of 1015, established a lasting model of princely sanctity in Eastern Slavic Christianity.