Boris and Gleb: Political and Theological Implications of Overcoming Violence Through Sacrifice in Kievan Rus

Abstract

MALMENVALL, Simon. Boris and Gleb: Political and Theological Implications of Overcoming Violence Through Sacrifice in Kievan Rus’. In the East Slavic historical consciousness, the sacrifice of the first canonized Rus’ saints Boris and Gleb (died in 1015) came to be viewed as a reflection of the sacrifice of the Old Testament figure Abel and as a model of the imitation of Christ concerning the renouncement of secular power. The author of this article advocates the following thesis: the fact that the first canonized East Slavic saints came from the secular ruling elite testifies to the attempts of the Rus’ literati to stress the strong influence of recently adopted Christianity on politically important decisions in Kievan Rus’, which allegedly achieved its religious “maturity” within the context of salvation history through this. The existence of the martyrs among the secular ruling elite, however, cannot be viewed as a specific element of East Slavic medieval culture alone because this type of sainthood was, despite local differences, present in recently Christianized lands on the northern and eastern periphery of Europe at the time.