Fyodor Yaroslavich of Novgorod (1219-1233)

Fyodor Yaroslavich (Фёдор Ярославич) (1219-1233 ) - prince of Novgorod (1228 - 1229), canonized by the holy Russian Orthodox Church. He is the son of the Grand Prince of Kiev and Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, from the second marriage with Rostislava Mstislavovna.

Life
He was born in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky in 1219 (according to other sources, in February 1220). The name of Fyodor was unusual for the previous history of the Rurikovich in two respects. Firstly, the prince got the same name in baptism as his father Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (earlier the coincidence of the names of the father and son was almost never met). Secondly, most likely, Fyodor, as well as his brother Aleksandr, were not given a Slav, "princely" name at all; in any case, all sources call them only by Christian names.

In 1225 Yaroslav Vsevolodovich performer the ceremony of the "princely vows", a rite of passage in the soldiers caste which took place in the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zaleski, Bishop of Suzdal - Saint Simon, after which began to teach them selfless cause of an experienced governor, Boyar Fedor Danilovich.

Continuing to rule in Novgorod Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich at the end of the summer of 1228 went with the princess from the city to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, leaving in Novgorod

In 1228, the eight-year-old Fyodor and his younger brother, seven-year-old Aleksandr, were left by their father in Novgorod under the supervision of Fyodor Danilovich and Tiny Yakim, together with the army of Pereyaslavl, who gathered in the summer to march on Riga. In winter, during the onset of the famine, not waiting for the father's response to the Novgorodians' request for the abolition of the nursery, on the night of February 20, 1229, Fyodor Danilovich, Tiny Yakim and the princes Fyodor and Alexander secretly escaped from the city, fearing reprisal by the rebellious Novgorodians.

In 1230, when the Novgorodians again called on his father Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, he stayed for two weeks in Novgorod, and put Fedor together with Alexander in the Novgorod land.

In 1232, on the orders of his uncle, Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich, Fyodor Yaroslavich participated in a march to Mordovia.He Died unexpectedly at the age of thirteen, before the planned marriage. His bride-to-be was the daughter of Mikhail Chernihiv Euphrosyne of Suzdal, later also canonized) in Novgorod on June 5, 1233, was buried in St. George's Cathedral of St. George's Monastery, at the southern entrance to the church. In the early 1930s, the sarcophagus was opened by M.K. Karger. In it were found scattered bones of a 13-15 year-old teeager. Extracted during excavation remains were exhibited in the cathedral of St. George's Monastery and were destroyed during the German occupation of Novgorod during World War II.

After death
After the "Time of Troubles" on the territory of the Novgorod land was the army of the Swedish commander Jacob Delagardi, designed to protect from the Poles. In 1616 (or in 1614), the Swedish looters plundered the burials of St George's Cathedral of St. George's Monastery near Novgorod. From the "Painting of Novgorod's shrine", compiled in 1634 :

«The Germans in the church of the Great Martyr George in the monastery, looking for luggage, and found a man intact and undefeated, in princely garb, and, taking them out of the tomb, as if alive, they were placed near the church wall." Then his body (probably that which was exhibited near the church wall) was recognized imperishable and transferred already as holy relics in the Nativity-Virgin Mary chapel of Novgorod's St. Sophia Cathedral.

In 1987, archaeological expedition of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V.L. Yanin revealed the burial place of prince Fyodor Yaroslavich, after which forensic research of mummified remains was carried out. It was found that they belonged to a man of 45-50 years, therefore, could not match the teenager Fyodor Yaroslavich. Thanks to excavations carried out both in St. George's Cathedral St. George's Monastery, and in the St. Sophia Cathedral of the Novgorod Kremlin, it was proved that this mummy belongs to Prince Dmitri Shemyaka.

The second version of the location of the relics of the holy prince is the city of Vladimir. According to legend, painted on the walls of St. George's Church (in 1157 Yegoryevsky Monastery) of the city of Vladimir, it is there that the relics of the holy Prince Fyodor and his mother Rostislava Mstislavovna(in the monastic life of Euphrosyne).