On the Day November 14 1263

Alexander Nevsky’s Soul Ascends to Heaven

On the Day November 14 1263

Khen Lim



Alexander Nevsky (Image source: uralkartina.ru)

On this day, seven hundred and fifty-three years ago in 1263, a funeral was taking place in the city of Vladimir in Russia. Metropolitan Cyril, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was serving the divine liturgy at that time when in his mind, an imagery was formed that urged him to sway from the traditional rituals. 

History reports that Cyril said, “Brethren, know that the sun of the Russian land has now set” and with that, he confirmed that he was witness to the soul of Alexander Nevsky ascending into heaven. He was only forty-three years old.

Born Alexander Yaroslavich (1222-1263) to Russian royalty in the north-east of the motherland, he was a mere teenager before he was primed for difficult leadership roles revolving around the struggle to maintain relationships with argumentative independent rulers. 

Yet despite his age, Alexander pulled it off because of his personal charm and godliness. His parents, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Rostislava Mstislavna brought him up in strict Orthodox faith and taught him early the importance of honouring God. As a young boy, he was preoccupied with reading the Bible.

Although, being a second son, his path to the throne of Vladimir didn’t appear promising, the East Slavic kingdom of Novgorod in 1236 called upon him to be their prince and consequently, their military leader in order to help fend of Swedish and German invaders from their north-western flank. The Kingdom comprised a city state that controlled much of medieval Europe’s north-east from what is known today as Estonia to the Ural Mountains, making it one of the continent’s largest.

Owing the increasing religious and military tensions with Sweden, the Catholic Swedes decided to settle their differences by invading. Fortunately for the Novgorodians, Alexander somehow anticipated the invasion and installed advance-warning sentries at strategic positions along the borders. 

Once the sentry guards spotted the oncoming Swedes about to disembark at the confluence of Neva and Izhora Rivers, he immediately advanced his troops to take up nearby positions but with great marshlands between them and the enemy, it was an uphill battle trying to overcome.

Neva Battle of 1240 (Image source: alamy)

Fearing that defeat at the hands of the Swedes meant the end of Russian Orthodoxy and hence the relinquishing of the nation’s soul and moral fibre, Alexander’s motivation was fuelled enough to do the impossible even with an army so much smaller in numbers and considerably weakened by earlier Mongol invasions. 

Yet he could exhort his soldiers, saying, “God is not on the side of force but of the just case, the truth.” Meanwhile the Swedes, mindful of their strength in numbers and might of force, were feeling so confident that they took their time to disembark from their ships while their commander was lolling about in a golden tent.

On July 15 1240, amidst a growing mist, Alexander and his small army launched an attack that took the Swedes by complete surprise thus routing them. Now well known as the Neva Battle of 1240, thanks to Alexander, the Kingdom of Novgorod was saved from certain slaughter. Because of this victorious battle, the now 19-year-old Alexander earned the sobriquet ‘Nevsky,’ a mutation of the name Neva from the Neva River. 

In contrast to the catastrophic Mongol invasion of the Slav lands in the north-west, this victory, coming only three years thereafter strengthened Alexander’s hand and gave him political clout. Despite handing them crucial victory, he was not appreciated by the boyars, who shared ruling power with the Kingdom’s archbishop. With relations worsening between him and the boyars, Alexander left Novgorod.

Battle on the Ice (Image source: axis history forum)

The young Alexander went on to a string of victories in Europe. He famously defeated the Teutonic knights and their crusader army from the Livonian Branch in the renowned ‘Battle on the Ice’ on April 5 1242 at Lake Peipus. The Teutonic Knights had assumed that recent battles against the Mongols and Swedish would have substantially weakened Novgorod that were now without Alexander who left. Sensing the impending threat by the crusaders, the local citizens of the Kingdom recalled Alexander who was exiled to Pereslavl.

In the battle against the crusaders, Alexander’s strategy was to fight on his terms and to do that, he devised a plan to draw the enemy in so that he could manoeuvre them to a place of his liking. He did this by pretending to withdraw and in this way, the overly confident 2,600-strong crusader army followed through. Once they reached the frozen lake (hence the name of the battle), the Teutonic knights and crusaders charged at Alexander and his army but were summarily held up by the Novgorod militia. 

Forced to slow down, more than two hours of close-quarter fighting ensued on ice before Alexander sent in his troops to join the fray. Exhausted by having to deal with the slippery ice, the crusaders began to panic and retreat in disarray, leading themselves even deeper on to the ice where they met face to face with a fresh Novgorodian cavalry.

By now, panic turned to pandemonium. Now at the far end of the lake, attempts to rally and regroup failed and inevitably, the thin ice began to crack under the weight of their heavy armour and gave way, bringing along the numerous knights and crusaders to their watery deaths.*

This was a hugely significant victory for the people of Novgorod because of the mandate of the Northern Crusades to destroy pagans including Eastern Orthodox Christians in deference to the rampaging Muslims in the Holy Land. The defeat marked the end of the Crusaders’ campaign against Novgorod and other Slavic territories for the next century.

Alexander Nevsky submitting to Batu Khan (Image source: euromaidan press)

As a politician, Alexander was cautious and far-sighted. He was all too aware of the Roman Curia’s designs on drawing Russia into a dissent with the Golden Horde, knowing that any war with the Tatars was bound to end in miserable defeat. The Golden Horde was a Mongol khanate originating from the north-western portion of the Mongol Empire established by Batu Khan (1205-1255), grandson of the fearsome Genghis Khan.

Alexander’s eventual political dealings with the Mongols raised conflicting opinions among historians of today. Some suggest that the young prince’s appeasement of the Khan was due to how he perceived Catholicism as a greater threat to the Russian national identity and that the Mongol had scant interest in Slavic religion and culture. 

Some believed that Alexander was playing his political hand by upholding his influence and befriending the Horde as a buffer against anyone including and especially the boyars and anyone who is anti-Mongol who might pose a challenge to his authority. To achieve that, it is said that he conveniently turned the North Slavic principalities and city states into becoming vassals to the Mongols.

Some historians may be more correct in claiming that Alexander was impassioned about safeguarding the Slavic principalities from Mongol invasions and that one of the things he appealed to Batu Khan was not to conscript Russians into fighting alongside the Tatars in wars against his own people. There are also some others who view Alexander’s decision to subordinate himself to the Golden Horde as a way to preserve the East Slavics’ Orthodox culture and religion but that would obviously mean that he spurned offers of cooperation with western countries.

Of course, one thing was crystal clear and he knew it too well – no matter what, he could not beat the Mongols. Resigned to that fact, Alexander conferred with Metropolitan Cyril to seek God’s will. Cyril’s advice to him was to yield in anything but faith and with that in mind, he acceded and submitted his authority to Batu Khan. Having done so, the Mongols, like the Babylonians, required conquered enemy rulers to bow before their idols and then to participate in pagan rites and rituals.

Unyielding in his faith, he stood his ground, preferring instead to die rather than to go against God. Emboldened like Daniel of the Old Testament, Alexander proclaimed Christ and swore that as long as he was alive, he would never bow to any graven image, Mongol or otherwise. Impressed by such personal boldness and also his military success, Batu Khan waived the requirement and abandoned the ceremony for Alexander!

Alexander Nevsky with his sworn brother, Sartaq Khan (Image source: euromaidan press)

All in all, Alexander Yaroslavich ‘Nevsky’ made and survived three trips to the distant Mongol Empire and in some cases, he exercised great diplomacy and humility in appeasing the fiery khanate only because of his followers’ impetuousness and hot-headedness. From 1236 to 1252, he was made not only Prince of Novgorod but he was also the Grand Prince of Kiev. From 1252 to 1263, at the behest of his friend Sartaq Khan, he was also the Grand Prince of Vladimir (supreme ruler of Russia).

On his third and final trip to Sarai, capital of the Golden Horde, he returned exhausted and decided to take a rest at a monastery in Gorodets, a fortress town on the left bank of the Volga River. 

There, Alexander finally succumbed, dressed in a monk’s habit but not before he took monastic vows and was accorded the religious name of Alexis. In his tragically short life, he became known as one of Christendom’s greatest servants of Christ and a military leader of renown that Russia ever produced. 

Saint Alexander Nevsky (Image source: sputnik international)

He was great enough to be honoured as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Macarius in 1547. On September 24 2008, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported that Alexander was the most popular Russian hero in history. Three months later, the ‘Name of Russia’ television poll called him the greatest Russian ever lived. Even atheistic Soviet leaders recognised and honoured him.

From early Russian chronicles recording the life of Alexander came this interesting epithet reference of the great prince:

“He was taller than others and his voice reached the people as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom the Egyptian Pharaoh placed as next to the king after him of Egypt. His power was a part of the power of Samson and God gave him the wisdom of Solomon… this Prince Alexander: he used to defeat but was never defeated…”

Alexander was laid to rest in the Great Abbey at the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in the city of Vladimir.

* There have been other scholars who believe that the story of the ice breaking up might not hold up. Instead the embellishment may have come from Sergei Eisenstein’s dramatic portrayal in the 1938 film entitled ‘Alexander Nevsky.’