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A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

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September 5 · Martyrs

Sts. Romanus and David

Sts. Romanus and David

A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

September 5
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Martyrs

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 225 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

The deed was done with such expedition and secresy that Sviatopolk hoped to obtain possession of his brother Gleb, or David, as he is also called, before his suspicions were aroused. Sviatopolk sent him an invitation to a banquet at Kieff. Gleb was thrown from his horse whilst on his way thither, and injured his foot.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

Keep their day. Remember them on September 5 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 225 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian Kalendars, on July 24. Their Translation on May 2. Romanus or Boris died July 24, David or Gleb on Sept. 5. On which day the Bollandists give their acts. Authorities: — Nestor (a.d. 1115), Chronicon. The Acts in the Bollandists are not correct.] On the death of S. Vladimir (July 15), his eldest son, Sviatopolk, seized on the reins of government. Boris, the second son, was at the time at the head of some troops opposed to the Pechenegians. Sviatopolk (determined to appropriate to himself the duchy of RostofT, which was the appanage of Boris) hastened secretly to Wissegorod, through which Boris would return, with intention to murder him. One night, after having disbanded his troops, the young prince was alone in his tent with a little Hungarian page named George, whom he had bought for a gold torque, when the assassins broke in and thrust at Boris. The boy at once flung himself between the spears and his master, and fell transfixed. Boris rushed out of the tent, but it was surrounded, and he was cut down. This took place on July 24, 1015. The murderers put the body on a cart; but apparently he was not quite dead, for when the waggon got into the forest near Wissegorod, he was seen to move and raise his head. Sviatopolk at once ordered a spear to be run through his brother's heart.

The deed was done with such expedition and secresy that Sviatopolk hoped to obtain possession of his brother Gleb, or David, as he is also called, before his suspicions were aroused. Sviatopolk sent him an invitation to a banquet at Kieff. Gleb was thrown from his horse whilst on his way thither, and injured his foot. He therefore took a boat at Smadin, after having left Smolensk. But in the meantime the rumour of the murder had reached Jaroslaff, prince of fSept. 5.

Novogorod, another brother, and he hastened to arrest Gleb on his way, and warn him that treachery was meditated. Whilst Gleb hesitated, not knowing whither to go, and incapacitated from flying on horseback, by the injury done to his foot, assassins arrived; the cook of Boris, who was in the pay of Sviatopolk, stabbed him with a knife; and the body was then secreted in a lonely place between two trunks ot trees. But a pillar of light and angelic psalmody called attention to the spot.

Jaroslaff escaped, took up arms, and defeated Sviatopolk in two pitched battles. Sviatopolk fled, but was seized with rheumatic fever, and died in agonies of alarm, thinking he was pursued by avenging hands. The body of Gleb was translated by order of Jaroslaff to Wissegorod, and laid beside that of his brother Boris. Both were uncorrupt.

Feast days

Feast: September 5

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Sts. Romanus and David's story, and a nudge to keep going.

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St. Victorinus

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Sts. Censurinus

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Sts. Eudoxius, Zeno and Others

Sts. Eudoxius

September 5 · Martyrs
← All 1727 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.