The middle of the XII century was for Russia a mournful time of continuous internecine battles for the Kievan reign of two princely groups: the Olgovichi and the Mstislavichi. They were all closely related, all great–grandchildren of Yaroslav the Wise. The Mstislavichi were named after their father, Saint Mstislav the Great (+ 1132), son of Vladimir Monomakh (hence their other name "Monomashichi"). The Olgovichi were named after Oleg Svyatoslavich (+ 1115), nicknamed "Gori-Slavich" for his bitter fate. Oleg Gorislavich was the son of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev (+ 1076), who participated in 1072 in the transfer of the relics of the holy Passion–bearers Boris and Gleb (information on May 2) and entered the history of the Russian Church as the owner of two remarkable theological collections of that time - "Izbornik Svyatoslav" in 1073 and "Izbornik" in 1076.
In some ancient chronicles, Prince Svyatoslav himself was revered as a saint of God, but two of his grandchildren were especially famous: the Monk Nikola Svyatosha (+ 1143) and his cousin, the son of Oleg Gorislavich, the holy Prince–martyr Igor Olgovich (+ 1147).
St. Nikola Svyatosha and St. Igor Olgovich represent two different paths of Christian holiness in Ancient Russia. The Monk Nikola, who renounced the world and princely duties, became a simple monk and peacefully rested after spending almost forty years in a monastery. Saint Igor, who by the will of God entered into the struggle for the Kievan principality, had to atone for the hereditary sin of princely strife by martyrdom.
In 1138, Igor's elder brother Vsevolod Olgovich (the great-grandfather of St. Michael of Chernigov) became the Grand Duke of Kiev. Although his reign lasted only a few years and was filled with continuous wars, the prince considered Kiev his hereditary principality and decided to pass it on to his brother Igor. At the same time, he referred to the example of Vladimir Monomakh and said, as if deliberately egging on the Monomachs: "Vladimir planted Mstislav, his son, after himself in Kiev, and Mstislav – his brother Yaropolk. But I say: if God takes me, then I will give Kiev to my brother Igor after myself." But God resists the proud. The proud words of Vsevolod, who was already disliked by the people of Kiev, became a pretext for inciting hatred against his brother Igor and all the Olgovichi. "We do not want to be inherited," the Kiev assembly decided. The anger and pride of the prince provoked the reciprocal anger and pride of the Kievans: Saint Igor, unwillingly involved in the very center of events, became an innocent victim of the growing hatred.
The terrible events unfolded rapidly. On August 1, 1146, Prince Vsevolod died, and the people of Kiev kissed the cross to Igor as the new prince, and Igor kissed the cross to Kiev – to justly rule the people and protect them. But, having violated the kiss of the cross, the Kiev boyars immediately called the Mstislavichs with an army. A battle took place near Kiev between the troops of Prince Igor and Izyaslav Mstislavich. Having once again violated the kiss of the cross, the Kiev troops defected to Izyaslav in the midst of the battle. For four days Igor Olgovich hid in the swamps near Kiev. There he was captured, brought to Kiev and put in a log cabin. It was August 13, and his entire reign lasted two weeks.
In the "log cabin" (it was a cold log cabin without windows and doors; in order to free a person from it, it was necessary to "cut him down" from there), the long-suffering prince fell seriously ill. They thought he was going to die. Under these conditions, the opponents of the prince allowed him to be "cut down" from imprisonment and tonsured in the schema in the Kiev Feodorovsky monastery. With God's help, the prince recovered and, remaining a monk of the monastery, spent his time in tears and prayer.
The struggle for Kiev continued. Aroused by pride and blinded by hatred, neither side wanted to give in. Wishing to take revenge on the Olgovich family, and at the same time on all the princes, the Kiev Veche a year later, in 1147, decided to deal with the monk prince.
The metropolitan and the clergy tried to reason with them and stop them. Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich, who ruled in Kiev, and especially his brother Prince Vladimir, tried to prevent this senseless bloodshed, to save the holy martyr, but they themselves were in danger from a fierce crowd.
The rebels broke into the church during the Holy Liturgy, seized Igor, who was praying in front of the icon of the Mother of God, and dragged him to massacre. Prince Vladimir stopped the crowd at the gates of the monastery. And Igor said to him: "Oh, brother, where are you going?" Vladimir jumped off his horse, wanting to help him, and covered him with a basket (a princely cloak) and told the Kievans: "Do not kill, brothers." And Vladimir led Igor to his mother's yard, and they began to beat Vladimir." This is how the chronicle tells us. Vladimir managed to push Igor into the courtyard and close the gate. But people broke down the gate and, seeing Igor "on the porch" (the covered gallery of the second floor in the ancient Kiev terem), smashed the canopy, dragged the holy martyr and killed him on the lower steps of the stairs. The ferocity of the crowd was so great that the dead body of the sufferer was beaten and insulted, he was dragged by a rope by his feet to the Tithe Church, thrown there on a cart, taken away and "thrown into the bargain."
Thus the holy martyr surrendered his spirit to the Lord, "and he put on the robe of a perishable man, and put on the incorruptible and long-suffering robe of Christ." When in the evening of the same day the body of Blessed Igor was transferred to the church of St. Michael, "God showed a great sign over him, all candles were lit over him in that church." The next morning, the holy sufferer was buried in the monastery of St. Simeon on the outskirts of Kiev.
In 1150, Prince Svyatoslav Olgovich of Chernigov transferred the relics of his brother, St. Igor, to Chernigov and laid them in the Spassky Cathedral.
The miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called Igorevskaya, before which the martyr prayed before his murder, was located in the Great Dormition Church of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (its celebration on June 5).

The Church remembers the transfer of the relics of the Blessed Prince Igor of Chernigov and Kiev
18.06.2024, 06:00