Peter and Fevronia
Beneath a clutter of mediaeval legend lies a heartwarming tale of a Russian Prince and his peasant bride.
1174-1224
King Henry II 1154-1189 to King Henry III 1216-1272
Beneath a clutter of mediaeval legend lies a heartwarming tale of a Russian Prince and his peasant bride.
1174-1224
King Henry II 1154-1189 to King Henry III 1216-1272
Over the centuries, the tale of St Peter and St Fevronia has been told and retold with growing embellishment. But at its core lies a touching and credibly historical story of married love from the infancy of Christian Rus’, and the Church keeps their feast on June 25th (July 8th) as a Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness.
PETER, a twelfth-century Russian prince,* met Fevronia when she cured him of an unsightly skin disease using her knowledge of herbs. She was only a peasant girl and Peter, having promised to marry her if she made him well, felt justified in backing out. But after a sharp relapse and further treatment at Fevronia’s hands, he kept his word.
In time, Peter inherited the crown of Murom,* but the haughty wives of Murom’s boyars flatly refused to serve Fevronia. So the loyal Prince unexpectedly followed her into exile, leaving the noblemen to squabble over the crown until they saw sense and begged them to return.
The Prince and his beloved wife reigned together in Murom for many years, and died on the same day and in the same hour, having spent a brief time apart in monastic seclusion. They were not buried together, despite their express wishes; but next day their bodies were discovered side by side, as inseparable in death as in life.*
The sixteenth-century legend of Peter and Fevronia says that just before he died Peter became a monk and took the name David, while Fevronia became a nun named Euphrosyne. It has been suggested that Peter may stand for David Yuryevich, son of Yuri I Vladimirovich ‘Dolgorukiy’, Grand Prince of Kiev. David was Prince of Murom from 1174. He married a commoner, resigned the throne to become a monk at the end of his life (he died in 1228), and shared the same grave as his wife, just as Peter does.
Murom is a city on the River Oka, some 170 miles east of Moscow, or 88 miles southwest of Nizhny Novgorod. If Peter was David Yuryevich, there are some English connections to savour. His grandfather Vladimir II Monomakh is said in Norse tradition to have married Gytha of Wessex, though David was his grandson through his second wife, Eufimia. David’s great-grandfather Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev gave sanctuary for a time to Edmund and Edward, the sons of King Edmund Ironside, and his daughter Agatha appears to have married Edward, making Henry II her great-great-grandson, and kin to David from afar. See Edward the Exile.
See also Love’s Last Knot, in which poet Richard Crashaw reflects on a husband and wife buried together. For the Welsh answer to Valentine, see St Dwynwen.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Peter’s painful skin condition return after Fevronia had cured it?
He broke his promise to marry her.