Right-Believing Right-Believing Grand Prince Rostislav (baptismal name Michael) Mstislavich of Kiev and Smolensk

CRITICAL: corrected the template artifact in the life-years field, "XI-XVII century," to the correct "c. 1110-1167." The feast date March 14/27 has been confirmed. Noted that general church veneration of Rostislav was established only by decision of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 3, 2016 — before that his veneration was local (Smolensk and Kiev).

Rostislav Mstislavich, baptized Michael, was a grandson of Vladimir Monomakh and son of Mstislav the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev. He ruled the Principality of Smolensk for over forty years (1125-1160), transforming it from a minor territory into a major center of power, founding several towns (including Rostislavl and Mstislavl) and rebuilding and fortifying the Smolensk Dormition Cathedral along with the city's kremlin. His most important ecclesiastical act was the founding, in 1136, of the independent Diocese of Smolensk, freeing the region from dependence on more distant sees.

He was renowned among his contemporaries for piety, church-building, and a conciliatory approach to the endemic feuding between rival princely branches (the Olgovichi and Monomakhovichi). He held the Kiev throne on three occasions (briefly in 1154, then 1159-1161 and 1161-1167), generally seeking to mediate rather than escalate conflicts among the princes of Rus. In March 1167, while journeying back toward Kiev, he fell gravely ill; before his death he received monastic tonsure, and per his own wishes was buried in the Theodore Monastery of the Kiev Caves Lavra.