Phroneo 2025-01-31

18/31 January: The Venerable Kiril and Maria, the parents of Saint Sergius of Radonezh

Some have said - perhaps, Father Thomas Hopko - that the Church has been in monastic captivity since, perhaps, the Middle Ages. This statement may be strong, but it is not altogether incorrect. Perhaps, one of the aspects of the life of the Church where this captivity is particularly evident is in whom she chooses to canonize among her saints. Very few of those glorified by the Church are married couples; and of those who are, fewer still treated one another not as brother and sister. But this is not because the married state is not compatible with sanctity - Christianity has never taught such a thing. This dearth of inspirational examples became evident in the early 2000s, when saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom were chosen as the patron saints of family life in the Russian Church. Far be it from us to question decisions of people much wiser and more pious, and this story deserves a separate treatment in a post of its own, but 300 kilometers from Murom, near Rostov, there lived another married couple - Kiril and Maria. Their memory is celebrated on this day.

Kiril did not fight dragons, as did Peter of Murom. Perhaps, by the end of the 13th century, there were no more dragons left to fight, or perhaps their habitat did not stretch into the Principality of Rostov. Instead, Kiril occupied himself with a less-glamourous task of helping the Prince of Rostov to manage his relationship with the Golden Horde. Those were very difficult times; the Mongols raided the Principality of Rostov repeatedly throughout the first quarter of the 14th century. In order to prevent some of the raids, the princes and their nobles traveled to the khans with tribute. Kiril took part in these embassies. Additionally, several of those years had a very poor harvest. By the early 1330s, Kiril’s family had lost almost everything they had and decided to move to Radonezh in the Principality of Moscow. The reason for the move was quite simple - economic refugees from Rostov were allowed to not pay taxes in Radonezh for the first several years after re-settlement. Through all of these difficulties, Kiril and his wife Maria “led lives pleasing to God, and were honest before God and men.”