11th century (died 1086 or 1087)
A prince of the line of Saint Vladimir who endured exile and dynastic conflict and was killed during political violence, remembered for piety.
The Holy and Right-believing Passion-Bearer Yaropolk, Prince of Vladimir-Volhynia, in Holy Baptism Peter
Yaropolk Izyaslavich, known in holy baptism as Peter, was an eleventh-century Rurikid prince of Kievan Rus' and a descendant of the dynasty of Saint Vladimir. He was the son of the Kievan Grand Prince Izyaslav and is remembered as a right-believing ruler and passion-bearer, commemorated by the Orthodox Church on November 22.
His life was shaped by the dynastic upheavals of his family: he shared in his father's expulsion from Kiev, carried out diplomatic missions to the rulers of Western Europe, and after returning to his appanage of Vladimir-Volynsk was treacherously killed amid conflict with rival princes. As a passion-bearer he is venerated not as one slain explicitly for the faith but as a ruler who met a violent death in a Christ-like manner.
Yaropolk was a prince of the Rurikid house, grandson of Yaroslav the Wise and great-grandson of Saint Vladimir, the enlightener of Rus'. His father was the Kievan Grand Prince Izyaslav, and his mother was Gertruda, a daughter of the Polish monarch Mieszko II Lambert, a connection that drew the family into the politics of Western Europe.
He married Kunigunde, a daughter of Otto I, Margrave of Meissen, and was the father of several children.
Yaropolk's career unfolded against the recurring strife of the Rurikid princes. He shared his father's expulsion from Kiev and the years of exile that followed, during which he served as the family's envoy to foreign courts. After Izyaslav's restoration in 1078, Yaropolk received Vyzhgorod and was given the principalities of Turov and Volhynia by the grand prince Vsevolod.
Following his father's death he held the city of Vladimir-Volynsk as his appanage, but his hold on it was contested by the Rostislavichi. By 1085, in conflict with the grand prince and with Vladimir Monomakh, he fled to Poland, returning the next year to a reconciliation with Monomakh. He was remembered as a benefactor who established churches and gave generously to monasteries, including the Monastery of the Caves at Kiev.
While traveling from Vladimir toward Zvenigorod-Galitsk, Yaropolk was treacherously slain by Neradets, one of his own retainers; the synaxarion relates that the assassin had been bribed by the Rostislavichi, and the chronicle tradition associates the deed with Rurik and Vasilko Rostislavich. The killer fled afterward to Peremyshl.
His body was brought to Kiev and buried on December 5 in the church of Saint Peter, which he had founded. He is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a passion-bearer, commemorated on November 22, the day of his death. As a passion-bearer he is honored for facing death in a Christ-like manner: such saints are not necessarily killed for confessing the faith, but are remembered for the piety and faith with which they bore an unjust death.