Fulfilling the duty of ecclesiastical obedience, Saint Andrew persuaded Bishop Theodore to go to Kiev with repentance to restore canonical relations with the metropolitan. The bishop's repentance was not accepted. Without a conciliar trial, Metropolitan Constantine, in accordance with Byzantine customs, condemned him to a terrible execution: Theodore's tongue was cut off, his right hand was cut off, and his eyes were gouged out. After that, he was drowned by the servants of the metropolitan (according to other sources, he soon died in prison).

Not only ecclesiastical, but also political affairs of Southern Russia required by this time the decisive intervention of the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Prince Andrew wished to give primacy to the Rostov-Suzdal region over all Russian lands; he thought to base the primacy on the subordination of Novgorod and Kiev to his power. His policy towards Novgorod led him to a clash with the princes of Southern Russia. On March 8, 1169, the troops of the allied princes, led by Andrei's son Mstislav, captured Kiev. The Russian chronicles regarded this event as a well-deserved retribution: "Behold, here is done for their (the Kievans') sins, and even more so for the Metropolitan's untruth." Prince Andrew himself remained in Vladimir and did not participate in the campaign. He gave the captured city to his younger brother Gleb to reign. This disdain for Kiev was an event of paramount importance, a turning point in Russian history, which showed that the center of Russian state life had shifted to the north, to the region of the upper Volga. The ancient capital lost its former importance, and instead of Kiev, there was now Vladimir Northern Rus, where there was a strong autocratic princely power.

In the same year of 1169 the prince moved his troops against the rebellious Novgorod, but they were miraculously repulsed by the Novgorod Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign (celebrated on 27 November/10 December), which was carried to the city wall by the holy Archbishop John († 1186, Comm. 7/20 September). But when the enlightened great prince turned his wrath into mercy and peacefully attracted the Novgorodians to him, God's favor returned to him: Novgorod received the prince appointed by the holy prince Andrew.

St. Andrew in Ancient Russia was the first worker in the creation of Northern Russia, its strengthening and elevation. And by the end of 1170, he concentrated power over all of Southern and Northern Russia and Novgorod in his hands.

However, by God's permission, tragedy hung over the princely family of Bogolyubsky. As early as 1165, mourning the death of his son Izyaslav, Prince Andrew built the Pokrovsky Monastery for prayer for the deceased - this is a verst from Bogolyubov, at the confluence of the Nerl River with the Klyazma. In the winter of 1172, the troops of the prince under the command of his son Mstislav again defeated the Volga Bulgaria, but the joy of victory was overshadowed by the death of the valiant Mstislav. In the year 1174 died a mysterious death the beloved younger son of the great prince – Saint Gleb (Comm. 20 June/3 July). Soon a thunderstorm hung over Saint Prince Andrew.

After the death of his sons, the Grand Duke lived in Bogolyubov. In spite of the prince's Christian virtues, and his extreme kindness and piety, he had secret envious people and enemies from among his retinue. But the pious prince did not pay attention to them, continuing the ascetic way of his life in the solitude of Bogolyubov. He often spent nights in prayer, gazing upon the face of the Lord and His saints with a broken heart and tears of repentance. He heard about the secret snares being plotted against him, but he thought to himself: "If my Lord was crucified by the people He saved, then he who lays down his life for his friends is His faithful disciple."

It is given to you in Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Phil. 1:29), the Apostle wrote to some of his disciples. The same gift was given to Blessed Prince Andrew. For his living, ardent love for the Lord, he was honored with a suffering death. On the night of June 30, 1174, the holy prince Andrew Bogolyubsky accepted a martyr's death at the hands of traitors in his Bogolyubsk castle. The Tver Chronicle reports that Saint Andrew was killed at the instigation of his wife, who participated in the conspiracy. At the head of the conspiracy were her brothers, the boyars Kuchkovichi, as well as the housekeeper Yasin (a Kabardian), Anbal and the baptized Jew Efrem Moizich, who were ready to sell everything for money, "conferring a murder for the night, as Judas did against the Lord." And they added to themselves up to 16 more people: some of the conspirators burned with anger because the just prince did not allow them, contrary to their hopes, to live merrily at the expense of others; others were torn with envy and indignant at the prince because he distinguished his faithful and best servant Procopius with a special love. All of them were showered with the prince's favors, and Anbal was the full administrator of the prince's household, but passion, the same as hell, will not say: enough. In the dead of night, armed conspirators came to the palace in Bogolyubovo, killed the small guards and broke into the vestibule. But when they began to approach the prince's bedchamber, terror fell upon them — they rushed to flee from the porch, drank wine in the prince's cellar, and went back drunk. The killers began to break down and broke down the doors. Prince Andrew jumped up, wanted to seize the sword that he always had with him (it belonged to St. Prince Boris), but the sword was not there — the housekeeper Anbal stole it in the afternoon. The prince managed to throw the first of the attackers to the floor, whom the accomplices immediately mistakenly pierced with swords. But soon they realized their mistake, "and therefore we knew the prince, and fought with him with the nobles, for he was strong, and with swords and sabers, and gave him spear wounds." A spear pierced the side of the holy prince's forehead, and all the other blows were inflicted by the cowardly murderers from behind. "Wicked ones! "What evil have I done you?" The Lord will avenge you for my blood and for your ingratitude to my mercies." When the prince finally fell, they rushed headlong out of the bedchamber, seizing the murdered accomplice. But the saint was still alive. He rose to his feet and, unconscious, groaning loudly, went out into the vestibule, descended the palace staircase with a last effort, hoping to call the guards. But his lamentations were heard by the murderers, and they turned back. The prince managed to hide in a niche under the stairs and miss them. The conspirators ran into the bedchamber and did not find the prince there. "Destruction awaits us, for the prince is alive," cried the murderers in horror. But all around it was quiet, no one came to the aid of the holy sufferer. Then the villains became bold again, lit candles and followed the bloody trail to look for their victim. Prayer was on the lips of Saint Andrew, when he was again surrounded by murderers. The boyar Joachim Kuchkovich chopped off his hand, the others plunged swords into his chest. "Lord, in Thy hands I commend my spirit," – managed to say the holy prince-martyr and died. It was on the night of June 29-30, 1174. In the morning of the next day, the murderers robbed silver, gold, expensive stones, pearls, fabrics in the prince's palace and sent the robbery home. Then, themselves and through their own people, they stirred up the people against the prince's loyal officials, robberies and murders began, such that it was frightening to watch, says an eyewitness.

The holy body of the right-believing prince, abandoned in the garden, lay unattended. Then the faithful servant of Kiev Cosmas, having found him, stood and wept bitterly over him. Seeing Anbal going to the palace, Cosmas cried out to him: "Give me a carpet or something to cover the prince." "Leave him," Anbal said angrily, "we threw him to the dogs." "Monster! The good-natured servant exclaimed. "Do you remember in what rags you came to the prince?" Now you are covered in velvet, and the prince, your benefactor, lies naked." Anbal gave a carpet and a coves, Cosmas covered the body of the deceased with it and laid it in the narthex of the church, where it remained for two days and two nights. On the third day, when the revolt was not yet over, the Kosmodemyan abbot Arsenius paid all possible honor to the murdered benefactor-prince. "How long shall we wait for the order of the elders? he said. "It's unseemly for a prince to lie like that. Open the church and let us do what is due. We will put him in some coffin until this malice ceases, and then they will come from Vladimir and take him for burial." The Bogolyubsky kliroshans gathered, lifted the body and carried it into the church and, after a funeral service with Hegumen Arsenius, lowered it into a grave lined with stone. Meanwhile, bad people, coming from the villages, continued to plunder in the city. The mob was also agitated in Vladimir, but the presbyter Nicholas, who had once brought the icon of the Lady from Vyshgorod together with the prince, put on the holy vestments and began to walk around with the miraculous icon, persuading the people to stop the disorders of self-will, which were never pleasing to the Lord; At last the agitation of passions subsided. On the sixth day, when the excitement subsided, the people of Vladimir sent for the body of the prince to Bogolyubovo. Seeing the prince's banner, which was carried in front of the coffin, the people wept, remembering that there were many good deeds behind the murdered prince. Solemnly, with funeral hymns and weeping, the clergy and people wept and buried the venerable body of the prince in the golden-domed Dormition Cathedral, which he himself had created.

And the chronicler concludes the touching legend with these words of the Psalms: "This prince Andrew during his lifetime did not give his body rest, below his eyes slumbering, until he found a true home, a refuge for all Christians and the Queen of Heavenly Hosts, who leads to salvation in many different ways. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens, says the Apostle, and the east is assigned to the red sun, and noon, and sunset; so He did not bring His saint, Prince Andrew, to Himself in the usual way, even though He could have saved his soul in any other way, but having washed away his sins with the blood of martyrdom, together with the passion-bearers Roman and David, who were of the same blood and of one accord with him, He led him into heavenly bliss."

Orthodox Russia honors the memory of St. Andrew Bogolyubsky with gratitude. The holy prince was one of the brightest faces of Russian history, and it was not in vain that his contemporaries compared him with the meek David and the wise Solomon. His activity, by the ineffable Providence of God, was the basis for the formation of North-Eastern Russia. Andrei Bogolyubsky, becoming the first Great Russian prince, laid the foundation for his activities and showed an example to his descendants; the latter, under favorable circumstances, had to accomplish what was planned by their progenitor. His descendants revered him, and the Church numbered him among her heavenly intercessors, together with other sacred knights of his native Vladimir.

But only later, already in the days of Peter I, in 1702, when the relics of the knight of Nevsky (Comm. 23 November/6 December) were transferred to the new capital of Russia, the incorrupt relics of Prince Andrew and his young son Prince Gleb were found for common consolation in the cathedral church of the Dormition. The honorable relics of St. Blgv. Prince Andrei were placed in the side-chapel in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos (in 1768 it was renamed in honor of his name). From that time on, the memory of the right-believing princes, who blessed the ancient city of Vladimir with their protection, began to be honored even more.

The transfer of the metropolitan cathedra from Kiev to Vladimir by Metropolitan Maxim in 1299, and then by Metropolitan Peter in 1325 to Moscow, was a visible sign of the unceasing care and protection of the Most Holy Theotokos over the Russian land. In 1326, the Assumption Cathedral was built in Moscow, under John Kalita, and Moscow began to rise. Soon it became the center of North-Eastern Russia, which was founded by St. Andrei Bogolyubsky.

Andrei Rublev, Venerable

Sources reporting about St. Andrew Rublev are very few. This is the Life of the Monk Nikon, a short and lengthy redaction; "A Message to the Shameful" by St. Joseph of Volotsk; "The Legend of the Holy Iconographers" of the late XVI — early XVII centuries; chronicle mentions; a record of the grave of St. Andrew at the beginning of the XIX century; mentions in the calendars.