Passion Bearers

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Passion Bearers are saints in the Orthodox Church who underwent cruelty and oppres­sion in a spirit of meekness and non-resistance to evil, regarded as tantamount to the status of martyrdom, especially as that witnesses to the church the heroic gentleness of Christ. The most famous of the Passion Bearers are the 11th-century Rus princes Boris and Gleb, sons of Prince Vladimir, who offered no resis­tance to their brother Sviatopolk who murdered them to attain political eminence. Other Passion Bearers include the Serbian St. John Vladimir (d. 1015) and (as many con­sider) the more modern examples of the Romanov royal family, whose spiritual forti­tude in their final days won wide admiration, and others such as Grand Duchess St. Elizaveta Feodorovna, killed by the Bolshe­viks, and Mother Maria Skobotsova, who witnessed heroically in a Nazi death camp.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Demshuk, V. (1978) Russian Sainthood and Canonization. Minneapolis: Light and Life. Lenhoff, G. (1989) The Martyred Princes Boris and Gleb: A Socio-Cultural Study of the Cult and the Texts. Columbus: Ohio University Press.