Right-Believing
Right-Believing Right-Believing Prince Gleb Vasilkovich of Rostov and Beloozero
1237–1278
Right-Believing Prince Gleb Vasilkovich of Rostov and Beloozero — son of Martyr Basil (Vasilko) of Rostov, founder of monasteries in Beloozero, venerated as a merciful and God-fearing 13th-century ruler.
CRITICAL ON IDENTIFICATION: the card mistakenly gave the life years and dates of the passion-bearer Gleb Vladimirovich (d. 1015, murdered with his brother Boris) — however, the card's image, in which figures are labeled "St. Vasily" and "St. Gleb" alongside "Cyril" and "Maria," points to an entirely different, later prince — Gleb Vasilkovich of Rostov and Beloozero (1237-1278), son of Martyr Vasilko (Basil) Konstantinovich of Rostov (also depicted alongside him) and Grand Princess Maria Mikhailovna of Chernigov; this is confirmed by his joint commemoration with Bishop Cyril of Rostov (d. 1262) in the Synaxis of Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints. The life years have been corrected (1237-1278, not "c. 987-1015"); of the three previous feast dates ("July 24/May 2/September 5" — contamination from the passion-bearer Gleb's card), only the genuine one has been kept — December 13/26, his date of death.
Gleb Vasilkovich was born in 1237, the younger son of Vasilko (Basil) Konstantinovich, Prince of Rostov, and Maria Mikhailovna of Chernigov. His father was killed by the Mongols in 1238 at the Sit River and is himself venerated as a martyr-prince.
He inherited the newly formed principality of Beloozero around 1251 (raised by his mother while a minor). He founded the Trinity Ust-Shekhonsky Monastery — the first known monastery in the Beloozero lands — and later the Transfiguration Monastery. He maintained close political ties with the Golden Horde, becoming the first Rurikid prince to marry a Mongol noblewoman (baptized Theodora), obtained from Karakorum around 1257; historians view this as pragmatic diplomacy in the mold of Alexander Nevsky rather than pro-Tatar sympathy.
His chronicle necrology calls him "God-loving, humble, and generous" — he ransomed Russian captives from the Tatars, helped the poor, and built and adorned many churches. After his elder brother Boris Vasilkovich died in 1277, he briefly also ruled Rostov, but died shortly after, on December 13, 1278.