Right-Believing Prince Theodore (Feodor) Yaroslavich of Novgorod, Right-Believing Prince

Right-Believing Prince Theodore was the eldest son of Grand Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Vladimir and the elder brother of St. Alexander Nevsky. From 1228 the brothers were left by their father in Novgorod as princely deputies; that same year they were briefly expelled by the Novgorod veche, but in 1230 Theodore again governed Novgorod on his father's behalf. In 1232, at about age 14, he took part in a campaign against the Mordvinian princes. In 1233 his father arranged his marriage to a princess of Chernigov (daughter of the Right-Believing Prince Michael of Chernigov); the wedding feast was already fully prepared — mead brewed, the bride brought in, guests invited — when, on the appointed day, June 5, 1233, Theodore suddenly died, and, in the chronicle's words, "in place of joy there was weeping and lamentation." He was buried in Novgorod's Yuriev (St. George) Monastery. When the monastery was desecrated by Swedish forces in 1614, his relics were found incorrupt and were later translated to the St. Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod, where they rest today.

IMPORTANT CONNECTION: Theodore's bride, the Chernigov princess Feodulia, after his sudden death refused to marry his younger brother in his place (a custom of the time) and took monastic vows at the Convent of the Deposition of the Robe in Suzdal under the name Euphrosyne, becoming renowned as Venerable Euphrosyne of Suzdal (a separate, previously completed card in this database) — the two vitae are historically and narratively bound together through this failed wedding. The memory of the Right-Believing Prince Theodore is kept on June 5/18, and also in the Synaxis of Novgorod Saints.