Dr Augustin Sokolovski
The joint celebration in honor of Saints Boris and Gleb in May was established in connection with the transfer of their relics and their enshrinement in a new stone church in the presence of the princes, the metropolitan, the people, and the clergy in 1072. The event served as an act of canonization and made them the patron saints of the princely family and the Russian Church. Since the princes were baptized with the names Roman and David, the saints are also the heavenly patrons of those who bear these names.
Saints Boris and Gleb refused to take up arms against their brother Svyatopolk in the struggle for the princely throne in 1015, and were killed, which made them passion-bearers, that is, those who voluntarily accepted suffering for the sake of following the commandments of the Gospel, but not as a sign of dogmatic witness to the faith, as was the case with the martyrs of the Early Church.
In this act, Boris and Gleb followed the example of the duke Wenceslaus of Bohemia, who, eighty years earlier, in 935, had suffered at the hands of his brother Boleslav under very similar circumstances. Just three days after this main commemoration of Boris and Gleb, another passion-bearer of the Orthodox Church, the last Russian emperor, Tsar Nicholas, celebrated his birthday.
Saints Venceslaus, Boris, and Gleb, Nicholas, martyrs and passion-bearers, pray to God for us! Christ is risen, and we too shall rise with you, our holy brothers!