Right-believing (Ruler) 13th century

Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom

died June 25, 1228

Also known as Peter · Fevronia · David · Euphrosyne

A prince of Murom and the wise peasant maiden who healed and married him, who ruled together in love and faith and at the last took monastic vows as David and Euphrosyne, reposing on the same day; patrons of Christian marriage.

Feast Day

June 25

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Commemorated as

The Holy Right-believing Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia, Wonderworkers of Murom

Come to them for

Marriage

Children

Life

Peter and Fevronia of Murom were a married couple of thirteenth-century Rus', a prince of Murom and the peasant maiden who healed and married him, who are venerated together as patrons of Christian marriage and the family. Commemorated as a single pair on June 25, they ruled Murom in mutual devotion, took monastic vows toward the end of their lives, and reposed on the same day and hour.

According to the tradition recorded in the synaxarion, Peter was the second son of the Murom prince Yuri Vladimirovich and came to the throne of Murom in 1203. Several years before this he had fallen ill with leprosy, which no physician could heal. A vision revealed to him that the daughter of a bee-keeper would cure him: Febronia, a pious peasant maiden of the village of Laskovo in the Ryazan region. When Peter met her he was moved by her piety, wisdom and virtue and vowed to marry her once he was healed; Febronia healed him, and they were wed.

The boyars of Murom, the tradition relates, would not accept a princess of common birth and pressed the prince to set her aside. When he refused, the couple were driven from the city and departed by boat along the River Oka, Febronia consoling her husband. Soon misfortune fell upon Murom, and the people begged the prince and Febronia to return. Having governed the city again in harmony, the two received the monastic tonsure near the end of their lives, taking the names David and Euphrosyne, and they died on the same day and hour, June 25, 1228; by tradition their bodies were laid in a single grave.

Timeline 4 moments Read Hide

1203 Becomes prince of Murom Peter, second son of Yuri Vladimirovich, comes to the throne of Murom.
June 25, 1228 Repose Having taken monastic vows as David and Euphrosyne, the couple die on the same day and hour.
1547 Glorification Canonized at a Council of Moscow under Metropolitan Macarius.
September 19, 1992 Enshrinement of relics Relics enshrined at the Holy Trinity Convent in Murom.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributions Read Hide

The Tale of Peter and Fevronia

The fullest account of the saints comes not from a conventional life but from 'The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,' a sixteenth-century work traditionally ascribed to Hermolaus-Erasmus (Yermolai-Erasm), a churchman from Pskov who later became a monk. Though the written tale dates to the mid-sixteenth century, it draws on older oral legend, and it interweaves hagiography with folkloric and fairy-tale motifs to an unusual degree.

In the tale, Peter slays a serpent that had been afflicting the princely household, and the serpent's blood brings upon him the scabs and sickness from which Febronia, prized for her wisdom and cleverness, then heals him. A recurring motif relates that after the saints were buried apart, in keeping with monastic custom, their bodies were repeatedly found reunited in one grave, which the tradition reads as a sign that they were not to be separated even in death.

Veneration

Peter and Fevronia were glorified as saints at a Council of Moscow in 1547 under Metropolitan Macarius. They are honored as wonderworkers of Murom and, above all, as patrons of marriage, conjugal love, and family life. Their relics rest at the Holy Trinity Convent in Murom, where they were enshrined on September 19, 1992.

In modern Russia their feast, kept on June 25 (July 8 on the civil calendar), has been observed since 2008 as the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, a secular as well as ecclesiastical commemoration that draws on the couple's reputation as a model of married fidelity.

Notes

Named married pair commemorated as one.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints