Right-Believing Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod

Blessed Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich of Novgorod was born in 1020, the son of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise and Princess Irina (Ingegerd of Sweden), and grandson of St. Vladimir the Great, Baptizer of Rus. In 1034, at age fourteen, his father appointed him his representative in Novgorod, where he governed with the help of Bishop Luke Zhidyata and the voivode Vyshata. In 1042 Vladimir led a campaign against the Finnish tribe of Yam, and in 1043 he took part in the last hostile clash between Rus and Byzantium, which ended in defeat. His greatest achievement was building the stone Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod, begun in 1045 and consecrated on September 14, 1052 — the only stone church built in eleventh-century Rus outside Kiev — together with a stone fortress for the city. Prince Vladimir died only twenty days after the cathedral's consecration, on October 4, 1052, at age thirty-two, and was buried within the church he had built. His incorrupt relics still rest in St. Sophia Cathedral.