Life of St. Prince Roman of Ryazan
The life of the holy noble prince Roman of Ryazan.
Roman - Roman (lat.). Strong (Greek)
The holy noble prince Roman Olegovich of Ryazan (in the world Yaroslav was born shortly before the invasion of the Tatars on the Russian land, in 1237. He came from a valiant family of Ryazan princes who cared about faith and piety. The ancestor of the family, the great-grandson of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, Prince Yaroslav-Constantine and his children, princes Michael and Theodore (May 21/June 3) became famous for their holiness of life. Constantine's grandson Vladimir Svyatoslavich was an example of unselfishness and self-sacrifice, the saint of Murom wonderworker Peter (+1228; June 25/July 8) was also the grandson of Constantine. The saint's grandfather Prince Roman, Prince Oleg founded the Assumption Monastery near Ryazan. Two grandfathers - princes Yuri and Oleg Igorevich - died for their faith and fatherland in the battle with Batu in 1237. Holy Prince Roman multiplied the virtues of his ancestors, glorifying the Ryazan land with the feat of confession.
The childhood and youth of Saint Prince Roman occurred during the very first period of the Mongol-Tatar yoke and this left an imprint on the fate of Saint Prince Roman, like thousands of his contemporaries. He also lost his parents. It is known about the father of the saint, Prince Oleg Igorevich, that he was taken prisoner by Batu and returned to his homeland in 1252. It is unknown how the young Prince Roman survived the Tatars. There is an assumption that he was taken by the Bishop of Ryazan Murom Euphrosynus Svyatogorets to Murom.
Deprived of relatives and shelter, Saint Prince Roman from his youth went towards the confessional feat through sorrows and suffering. His upbringing was, according to pious Russian custom, church-based. The beginning of wisdom—the fear of God—was placed at the foundation of life through the reading of the Holy Scriptures. From his youth, the meek prince burned with love for Christ and was confirmed in the Orthodox faith. Piety and patience, love for the fatherland and perfect devotion to the will of God distinguished the future passion-bearer and confessor.
When his father returned from Tatar captivity, the noble prince was already a family man. His wife, Princess Anastasia, came from the family of the Grand Duke of Kyiv and was distinguished by her sincere faith and charity. Three sons - princes Theodore, Yaroslav and Konstantin - were raised in piety and fear of God.
On March 20, 1258, after the death of Prince Oleg’s father, who took monastic vows before his death, the noble Prince Roman ascended the throne of the vast Ryazan principality, which at that time was slowly recovering from the Tatar pogrom. Holy Prince Roman took control of the principality with one hope in God's Providence and, during the twelve most difficult years of his reign, managed to save the Ryazan lands from new devastation. The noble prince prayed with tears for his homeland and tried to ease the lot of the devastated people. By word and example of his life he inspired
surrounded by love for the native land and the Holy Church. The Tatar tribute collectors (Baskaks) were angry with the holy prince, since he constantly restrained them from violence and stood up for the offended. One day one of the Baskaks reported to Khan Mengu-Temir that the noble prince Roman was blaspheming the khan and blaspheming his pagan faith. There were people who confirmed the slander, and the khan summoned the saint to Odra for trial.
The meek prince calmly listened to the sad news and began to get ready for the Horde, to the grief of the family and all the residents of Ryazan, who sincerely loved him. Going to the khan, the noble prince Roman distributed the inheritance of his principality among his sons and received communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In the Horde, the holy prince, according to the chronicler, “was justified in slander, but he heard a lot from the Tatar princes, and they began to force him to their faith.” And by order of the khan, the noble prince had to accept their faith for his justification. In a fit of pious indignation and love for the faith of Christ, “he said to them: “It is not worthy for Orthodox Christians, having abandoned their Orthodox faith, to accept the infidel faith.” Then we started to beat him. He said: “There is a Christian, and truly, the Christian faith is holy, but your Tatar faith is vile.” The Tatars burned with rage and gnashed their teeth at the saint, but, seeing his inflexibility, they rushed at him and began to beat him mercilessly. “There is a Christian,” exclaimed the prince, showered with blows, “and the Christian faith is truly holy!” He wanted to speak more, but they gagged him and, chaining him, threw him into prison. In a stuffy dungeon, bound hand and foot, St. Prince Roman weakened in body, but strengthened in spirit. Submission
according to the providence of God, which was one of the main virtues of his life, supported the sufferer and poured new strength into him to endure the coming torment. The prince had a presentiment of what awaited him and only prayed.
His lot had already been decided by the khan: he gave the Tatars the order to kill the noble prince Roman. With cruel curses they took the martyr out of prison and led him to the place of execution. The prince calmly went to his torment; his face reflected a feeling of Christian humility and peace of mind, which are given to the few who have been purified in the crucible of temptation. The confessor of Christ was not afraid to die for Him, but did not know that the most terrible of deaths awaited him - a slow death. Arriving at the place of execution, the saint decided for the last time to test the power of his word over the barbarians and began to reproach them for superstition and cruelty, threatening them with the wrath of God. They cut out his tongue and then subjected him to terrible torture: his eyes were gouged out, his lips were cut off. The inhumanity of the tormentors did not spare a single member of the sufferer, St. The passion-bearer was cut down in parts: first they took away the fingers and toes, then they cut off his arms and legs. “And as if only one corpse remained, they tore off the skin from its head and pulled back the spear.”
The valiant prince of Ryazan Roman Olegovich endured such suffering in the Horde on the 19th day of July 1270. Tradition says that the holy relics of the martyr Roman of Ryazan were secretly transferred to Ryazan and there reverently buried. The burial place remains unknown. Church veneration of the blessed Prince Roman as a saint began immediately after his martyrdom. Contemporaries called him a new martyr and compared him with the Great Martyr Jacob the Persian (+421; November 27/December 10). The chronicle says about the saint: “Buy for yourself the Kingdom of Heaven with passion and receive the crown from the hand of the Lord with your relative, the Grand Duke of Chernigov Mikhail Vsevolodovich, who suffered in Christ for the Orthodox Christian faith.”
In 1812, on the day of memory of the blessed Prince Roman, Russian troops won their first victory at Klyastitsy. In memory of this, an image of Saint Prince Roman was painted on the wall of the Moscow Church in honor of Christ the Savior. According to legend, on the icons the noble prince was depicted as follows: “The prince is not old, with light brown, curly hair falling on his shoulders in a thin wave, wearing a sable fur coat on his shoulders, wearing a velvet robe; the right hand is stretched out in prayer, and the left hand holds the city with the church.”
Since 1854, a religious procession and prayer service have been held in Ryazan on the day of memory of St. Roman. In 1861, a temple was consecrated in Ryazan in honor of the blessed Prince Roman. Currently, in the main altar of the Ryazan Boris and Gleb Cathedral there is a portable altar, consecrated in the name of the holy noble prince Roman of Ryazan. During the Divine Liturgy in this cathedral, along with the temple and ordinary troparions, a troparion is sung to the passion-bearer Roman, the wise organizer of the Ryazan land, prayer book, confessor, defender of the Orthodox faith.
Source: Creating a Legacy website.
Prayer to Roman Ryazansky, passion bearer
Holy glorious great martyr, faithful to Prince Roman, patron and intercessor of the land of Ryazan! We believe and hope that through your suffering and God-pleasing life, having acquired great mercy and boldness from the Lord God, you have not forgotten the property of your earthly, our fatherland, in which we, your servants, are overwhelmed by many enemy adversities and worldly passions. We also ask you: with your prayers and intercession, beg our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver us from all troubles and evil situations, from all illnesses and diseases and from all enemies, visible and invisible. O great servant of God! Breathe for us, sinners, to the Lady of all, may we forgive all our sins and may the grace of the All-Holy Spirit descend upon us, so that, having ceased from all filthiness, we may live the rest of our lives in all piety and purity and, having thus pleased the Lord, we will be worthy of an ever-blessed life, singing and chanting the great mercy of God and your merciful intercession for us at the Throne of God forever and ever. Amen.
The prayer is different
O glorious passion-bearer, great servant of God, bring our tearful prayer to the Lord our God, propitiate Him towards us sinners, that the righteous may take away his wrath and pacify our long-suffering country; may he establish prosperity and peace, may he bestow upon us an abundance of earthly fruits, and may he forbid our enemies from causing offense to the orphaned and helpless. In the same way, falling to your icon, we remember with faith your suffering, endured for Christ, and we pray to you: do not leave us and ask the Lord for good things, temporary and eternal, so that we may glorify the God who has glorified you forever. Amen.
Troparion, tone 1:
You surprised everyone with your strangely terrible torment and valor, Prince Roman: you endured the cutting of your honest members according to their composition and your entire body, fragmentation for the faith of Christ. In the same way, you ascended to the Throne of the King of Glory and you appeared as a new representative of the Church of Ryazan. Pray therefore to the Lord, that peace and prosperity may bestow upon our city, and ask Him for mercy and salvation for those who honor your sacred memory, long-suffering one.
Kontakion, voice 2:
Slandered before the khan in blasphemy of his evil faith, you boldly appeared before the wicked court, but fearing the Last Judgment of Christ, you despised the khan’s command and fear, Saint Romane. Cruelly beaten and tormented, you cried out: “I am a Christian,” cut with your body like a rod, in your suffering you became like Jacob the Persian and you appeared as a great martyr, a pillar and affirmation of the Church of Ryazan, an intercessor and the glorious governor of Russia.
Greatness
We magnify you, holy great martyr Prince Roman, and honor your honest suffering, which you endured for Christ.
patron saints
The Life of the Holy Blessed Prince Roman of Ryazan
Icon of the Holy Blessed Prince Roman of Ryazan
The holy noble prince Roman Olegovich Ryazansky, in the world Yaroslav, whose family went back to Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who baptized Rus' and laid the foundation for its Christianization, was born in 1237 (according to other sources in 1236). His entire family of Ryazan princes was famous for their piety and devotion to their land, many of them were canonized as holy noble princes and are revered by the Orthodox Church, others lived glorious lives, and the memory of their virtuous and useful reign for their native lands and Rus' was preserved and revered, especially on Ryazan land. His father, Oleg Igorevich Pronsky, nicknamed Red, was seriously wounded and captured in battles with Batu. How Roman-Yaroslav himself survived his childhood and adolescence is known only approximately: there is a version according to which he was taken to Murom by the Bishop of Ryazan and Murom Euphrosynus Svyatogorets. The first years of the young prince's life were devoted to the study of the Holy Scriptures, patristic literature, and attending services. He was not interested in children's amusements, from an early age he was kind to people, but he was strict with himself and devoted to God, dreaming of a pious priestly life. Upon returning from fourteen years of captivity, Prince Oleg Igorevich Pronsky reigned for another six years and before his death adopted the schema with the name of Cosmas. And on March 20, 1258, his son Roman ascended the throne of the great Ryazan principality. The young prince was approximately 22 years old, he was married to Princess Anastasia, who came from the family of the Grand Dukes of Kyiv, a pious and virtuous girl. The names of her and her father, Prince Roman Oleg Pronsky, are revered in Ryazan on June 10/23. With the princess he had three sons: Theodore, Yaroslav and Konstantin - they were also raised in Christian piety and purity of thoughts. He remained on the throne for 12 years, wisely protecting the part of the Russian land entrusted to him by the Lord from unnecessary extortions and other devastation from the Golden Horde and following the advice of Metropolitan Kirill and the Righteous Prince Alexander Nevsky, who had care and guardianship over him from his youth. All this time, he fervently prayed for his land, for its liberation from foreigners who mercilessly robbed the Ryazan principality and sought to weaken the faith by imposing their beliefs and customs. The tribute collectors - the Baskaks - hated him for his constant intercession for his people, in which he prevented violence against them and did not allow them to offend the peasants and townspeople of his principality. In the Golden Horde, affairs in the Ryazan lands were led by Khan Mengu-Temir, one of the most cruel and cunning. The Baskas were tired of enduring the obstacles that Prince Roman put in front of them, who did not allow them to rob the tribute-laden people to the bone. In addition, in 1257, the Tatars accepted Mohammedanism and began attempts to introduce Islam in Russian lands, which Prince Roman prevented in every possible way. Having decided to get rid of the prince, the Baskaks composed a denunciation against him, from which it followed that Prince Roman was dishonoring the khan verbally and blaspheming the Mohammedan faith. The prince was summoned to the Horde.
Getting ready for the trial, the meek prince understood that, most likely, he would not return from there. His family, all the residents of Ryazan, having lost their main protector, grieved together, since everyone sincerely loved him for his kind and fair disposition. Therefore, when leaving, the prince distributed his princely inheritance among his sons in advance, handed them orders and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In the Horde, he managed to justify himself from slander about defamation of the khan's name, but they began to persuade him to recognize and accept the pagan faith. Here the meekness of the prince turned out to be akin to the meekness of Christ, with which the Lord accepted His captivity, torture and death on the Cross. Neither the beatings, nor the stay in prison in chains, nor all the subsequent torments, since the faith was new, and the cruel pagan ideas about the treatment of the “infidels” - the old ones, did not stop the holy prince-passion-bearer in his ardent affirmation of the only true faith - the holy faith of Christ and open testimony that the Basurman faith is “filthy.” His body weakened, but his spirit strengthened. What he had not said before, trying to protect Ryazan and its inhabitants from violence, including attacks on the faith of Christ, he now said to the faces of his tormentors. The anger of Mengu-Temir because of the refusal of the holy Prince Roman to betray his faith became more and more inflamed, clouded his eyes, and he invented more and more new torments. But the spirit of the saint, who was devoted to the Lord from childhood, was stronger than bodily suffering. When he was led to execution, as is known from the chronicles, his face was calm and humble. He was executed by a slow death, but until the last minutes of his life, with words and a gaze burning with faith, he denounced the wicked. After the execution, the tortured remains of the prince were secretly transferred to Ryazan and interred, but their resting place remained unknown. Church veneration of his name began immediately after these tragic events - he was canonized as a holy martyr. What a miracle happened
Icon of the Holy Blessed Prince Roman of Ryazan
Many happy and amazing victories of the Russian troops, like the victory on July 19, 1812 at Klyastitsy, happened precisely on the date of memory of the holy noble prince Roman of Ryazan. During the Crimean War of 1853 - 1856, in the year 1853, Archbishop Gabriel of Ryazan and Zaraisk presented the Ryazan militia with 14 crusader banners consecrated by him, and after a year, day after day, the defenders of the Ryazan militia returned to their homeland unharmed: they were convinced that their protected under these banners by the holy Prince Roman. The icon of the Holy Prince Roman of Ryazan, painted in full size, was placed in the church of the Vladimir Seminary in the chapel of the Three Saints, and the second, with the charitable assistance of the merchant Mokiy Panov, was donated to the Church of the Savior on the Yara for religious processions and prayer services. It was written by the artist of the Imperial Academy of Arts Nikolai Shumov, and such a wonderful story was associated with it. In 1864, the artist had a daughter. The girl was sick from birth, and doctors considered the disease incurable. Then the artist with all his heart turned to the holy Prince Roman, saying that he had decorated his temple - so maybe the saint would heal his daughter. The prayer was so heartfelt that the saint fulfilled the request of the grieving father. This was also July 19th. On the same day, the artist learned that for this disease the doctor who was treating his daughter had a medicine that he did not have before, and with his help the girl was put back on her feet. If today, with faith and love, we ask the holy and noble Prince Roman of Ryazan, the meek and humble defender of all those undeservedly offended or suffering from illness, for help, he will certainly turn with an intercessory prayer to the Lord and the Mother of God and will fervently pray for us, and everything will be fulfilled according to our faith, for it is known - “God is marvelous in his saints!” The meaning of the icon On July 19/August 1, 1812, on the day of remembrance of the holy noble prince Roman Olegovich of Ryazan, who accepted the crown of martyrdom for the faith of Christ and his native land, in the battle near the village of Klyastitsy, Russian troops defeated the numerically superior French troops and blocked Napoleon’s path to St. -Petersburg. In memory of this amazing victory in Moscow, on one of the walls of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was painted the image of the holy prince - a young man with blond wavy hair, wearing a sable fur coat - a traditional attire that testified to his belonging to the princely family. The right hand was raised in prayer, and on the left lay the city with the temple towering above it as a symbol of its defense of the holy faith and native land. This icon and other lists reminded and remind us what great feats our ancestors went to, selflessly, at the cost of their lives, defending not only their earthly inheritance, but also all together - the Heavenly inheritance, given to them for preservation by the Lord and the Mother of God. In memory of the feat of the Holy Prince Roman of Ryazan, a procession of the cross is held in Ryazan on the day of his memory, the tradition of which began in 1854. In 1861, a temple was consecrated in his honor in the capital of the Ryazan province. Nowadays, in the main altar of the Ryazan Cathedral of St. Boris and Gleb, which stands in Ryazan on Cathedral Square, there is a portable altar, which is consecrated in the name of the holy noble prince-martyr Roman of Ryazan. He ruled his princely inheritance for a short time, but wisely and piously, and laid down his head for it, without betraying either his faith or his land. Thus, he preserved continuity and loyalty to the pious family coming from the holy Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavich, and set a worthy example for his descendants to follow.
