The Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky was born on May 30, 1220 in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. His father, Yaroslav, baptised Theodore, was the youngest son of Vsevolod III the Big Nest. Mother of St. Alexander, Feodosia Igorevna, Ryazan Princess. In 1227, Prince Yaroslav, at the request of the Novgorodians, began to reign in Novgorod the Great. He took his sons, Fyodor and Alexander, with him.
The most difficult time in the history of Russia began: Mongol hordes marched from the east, chivalric hordes were advancing from the west. In this terrible hour, God's Providence raised up Saint Prince Alexander, the great warrior—prayer book, ascetic and builder of the Russian land, for the salvation of Russia.
Taking advantage of the invasion of Batu, hordes of crusaders invaded the Fatherland. The Swedes were the first. Many ships approached the Neva River under the command of Jarl Birger. St. Alexander, who was not yet 20 years old at that time, prayed for a long time in the church of St. Sophia. Archbishop Spyridon blessed the holy Prince and his army for battle. After leaving the temple, Alexander strengthened the squad with words full of faith: "God is not in power, but in truth. Some with weapons, others on horseback, and we will call on the Name of the Lord our God!" With a small squad, the prince hurried to the enemies. But there was a wonderful omen: A soldier standing in the naval patrol saw at dawn on July 15 a boat sailing on the sea, and on it the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb, in scarlet robes. Alexander, emboldened, courageously led the army against the Swedes with prayer. "And there was a great battle with the Latins, and he killed countless of them, and put a seal on the leader's face with a sharp spear." For this victory on the Neva River, won on July 15, 1240, the people named St. Alexander Nevsky.
The German knights remained a dangerous enemy. In 1241, with a lightning campaign, St. Alexander returned the ancient Russian fortress of Koporye, expelling the knights. In 1242, in winter, he liberated Pskov, and on April 5 gave the Teutonic Order a decisive battle on the ice of Lake Peipsi. The Crusaders were completely defeated. The name of St. Alexander became famous throughout Holy Russia.
The western borders of the Russian land were securely fenced, it was time to secure Russia from the east. In 1242, Saint Alexander Nevsky and his father, Yaroslav, left for the Horde. The Lord crowned the sacred mission of the defenders of the Russian Land with success, but it took years of work and sacrifice. Prince Yaroslav gave his life for this. The alliance with the Golden Horde bequeathed by his father — then necessary to prevent a new defeat of Russia — continued to strengthen St. Alexander Nevsky. Promising his support, St. Alexander gave Batu the opportunity to march against Mongolia, to become the main force in the entire Great Steppe. In 1252, many Russian cities rebelled against the Tatar yoke. Russia's very existence was threatened again. St. Alexander had to go to the Horde again to ward off the punitive invasion of the Tatars from the Russian lands. Saint Alexander became the sovereign Grand Duke of all Russia. In 1253, he repelled a new raid on Pskov, in 1254 he concluded a treaty on peaceful borders with Norway, in 1256 he went on a campaign to the Finnish land. Into the darkness of paganism, St. Alexander carried the light of Evangelical preaching and Orthodox culture. The whole of Pomerania was enlightened and mastered by the Russians.
Batu Khan died in 1256. The Holy Prince went to Sarai for the third time to confirm peaceful relations between Russia and the Horde with the new Khan Berke. In 1261, through the efforts of St. Alexander and Metropolitan Kirill, the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was established in Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde.
The epoch of the great Christianization of the pagan East has come, and this was the historical vocation of Russia prophetically guessed by St. Alexander Nevsky. In 1262, on his instructions, Tatar tribute collectors and recruiters of Baskaki warriors were killed in many cities. They were waiting for Tatar revenge. But the great defender of the people went to the Horde again and wisely directed events in a completely different direction: referring to the Russian uprising, Khan Berke stopped sending tribute to Mongolia and proclaimed the Golden Horde an independent state, thereby making it a barrier to Russia from the east. Russian Russian multinational state matured and strengthened in this great union of Russian and Tatar lands and peoples, which later included almost the entire legacy of Genghis Khan to the shores of the Pacific Ocean within the Russian Church.
This diplomatic trip of St. Alexander Nevsky to Sarai was the fourth and last. On the way back, before reaching Vladimir, in Gorodets, in the monastery, the ascetic prince surrendered his spirit to the Lord on November 14, 1263, completing a difficult life path by accepting the holy monastic schema with the name Alexy. His holy body was carried to Vladimir, the journey lasted nine days, and the body remained incorruptible. On November 23, at his burial in the Nativity Monastery in Vladimir, God revealed "a wonderful miracle and worthy of memory."
The incorruptible relics of the blessed prince were discovered, according to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, and at the same time a local celebration was established. The Church-wide glorification of St. Alexander Nevsky took place under Metropolitan Macarius at the Moscow Cathedral in 1547
On August 30, 1721, Peter I, after a long and grueling war with the Swedes, concluded the Peace of Nishtad. It was decided to consecrate this day by transferring the relics of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky from Vladimir to the new northern capital, St. Petersburg. Taken from Vladimir on August 11, 1723, the holy relics were brought to Shlisselburg on September 20 and remained there until 1724, when on August 30 they were installed in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they still rest today. The festival was established by decree of September 2, 1724, restored in 1730.
The name of the defender of Russia's borders and the patron saint of warriors is known far beyond the borders of our Homeland. Evidence of this is the numerous temples dedicated to St. Alexander Nevsky. The most famous of them are the Patriarchal Cathedral in Sofia, the Cathedral in Tallinn, the temple in Tbilisi. These temples are a pledge of friendship between the liberator Russian people and fraternal peoples.