It’s a Feria, 4th Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: “The Acts of Prudence”, today’s news from the Church: “Abstract Obedience and Concrete Obedience”, a preview of this week’s episode of The SSPX Podcast: “The Catechism – Episode 1: What is a Catechism?”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
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Sources Used Today:
- “The Acts of Prudence” — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
- “Abstract Obedience and Concrete Obedience” (FSSPX.news)
- The SSPX Podcast: “The Catechism – Episode 1: What is a Catechism?” (SSPX Podcast)
- View on YouTube
- Listen & Subscribe on SSPXpodcast.com
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook!
- Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
- Donate: https://sspx.gifts/audiobook
Saints Boris and Gleb were brothers, princes, and among the first saints to emerge from the newly Christianized lands of Kievan Rus’. But they are not remembered because they won a great battle or ruled a powerful kingdom.
They are remembered because they refused to begin a civil war.
Their father was Saint Vladimir, the ruler whose baptism helped bring Christianity to the people of Rus’. When Vladimir died in 1015, the usual struggle over succession began almost immediately. His sons governed different territories, each surrounded by soldiers, advisers, and men with their own ambitions.
Boris was returning from a military campaign when news reached him that his father was dead and his older brother Sviatopolk had taken control of Kiev. Boris’s soldiers urged him to act quickly. He had an army. He had popular support. He may even have had a strong claim to the throne.
This was the moment when medieval princes normally reached for their swords.
Boris refused.
He would not raise his hand against his brother or plunge the country into bloodshed for the sake of power. Knowing that assassins had probably been sent against him, he spent his final night praying. He was attacked the following morning and killed.
Gleb soon received a message telling him to come to Kiev, supposedly because his father was ill. He did not yet know that Vladimir was dead or that Boris had been murdered. Warned too late of the plot, Gleb found himself trapped aboard a boat with the men sent to kill him. Like Boris, he did not organize resistance. He prayed, wept for his brother, and accepted death rather than answer treachery with more violence.
The Church gave Boris and Gleb a special title: “Passion-Bearers.” They were not martyrs in the usual sense of being ordered to deny Christ. Instead, they imitated the patience of Christ during His Passion, accepting unjust death without retaliation.
Their choice did not immediately end the political violence. But it gave the young Christian nation a new kind of hero. Instead of celebrating princes who conquered their enemies, the faithful honored two brothers who surrendered power rather than destroy their people to possess it.
Their relics were enshrined at Vyshhorod, near Kiev, and churches dedicated to them appeared throughout the lands of Rus’. Their images often show them standing side by side, dressed as princes but holding crosses rather than weapons.
Saints Boris and Gleb, brothers who chose the peace of Christ over the power of a throne, pray for us.
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The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.
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