Introduction
The tale of St Dmitri of the Don is a tale of the quest to free a people from foreign domination, of hard-fought victory and of wholly avoidable defeat. In 1380, Grand Duke Dmitri I of Moscow, aged just twenty-nine, freed the city from generations of vassalage to the Tartar Golden Horde, only for treachery to bring all that he had achieved to nothing in the very hour of triumph.
THE most remarkable of Ivan Kalita’s* descendants was his grandson Dmitri,* who determined to throw off the Tartar yoke and refused to pay the heavy tribute imposed by them.* Mamai, who then ruled in the Golden Horde, threatened to visit Russia with fire and sword, and formed an alliance with Jogaila of Lithuania [1380].*
Dmitri collected an army of 200,000 men at Kolomna, and before starting went to the newly founded monastery of Troitsa to receive the blessing of St Sergius.* St Sergius gave him two of his monks, Peresvet and Oslyabya, who had been famous warriors, to be his companions,* and Dmitri left Moscow to join the army.
At the end of his first day’s march he lay down to sleep under a pine tree, and had a vision in which St Nicholas promised him victory. When he awoke he saw an icon hanging on the tree, and took it with him to the war. He afterwards built a monastery dedicated to St Nicholas, on the site of his camp.
* Ivan Kalita, Grand Duke of Moscow from 1325 and of Vladimir from 1332 until his death in 1340 or 1341. He amassed great wealth, and raised the status of Moscow as the Russian capital by building strong defences and by bringing Metropolitan Peter, a successor of the exiled Patriarchs of Kiev, over from the city of Vladimir.
* Dmitri Ivanovich ‘Donskoi’ (1350-1389), venerated as St Dmitri on May 19th (June 1st NS). His contemporaries in England were Edward III (r. 1327-1377) and Richard II (r. 1377-1399). Dmitri was Prince of Moscow from 1359 and Grand Duke of Vladimir from 1363. His father was Ivan II Ivanovich the Fair (1326-1359), Grand Prince of Moscow and of Vladimir, who died in the Black Death that also ravaged England at this time.
* Dmitri, like his father and grandfather and other Russian princes going back more than a hundred years, ruled only by permission of the mighty Tartar Golden Horde. It was an offshoot of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire, and established by warlord Batu Khan (1242–1256), who had asserted lordship over the princes of the great cities of Russia in the 1240s. See also The Trials of Alexander Nevsky.
* Jogaila (?1352/1362–1434) was Grand Duke of Lithuania (1377–1434) and also King of Poland (1386–1434). After the death of his father Algirdas in 1377, Jogaila began a power struggle with his step-brothers Andrei of Polotsk and Dmitri of Bryansk, who allied with Dmitri of Moscow.
* St Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392), who with St Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833) is one of Russia’s two most venerated homeland saints. The monastery was the Trinity (Troitsa) Lavra of St Sergius in Sergeiyev Posad, some fifty miles northeast of Moscow. Visit the official website for more information. It is home to the famous icon of the Trinity (strictly speaking, the Hospitality of Abraham) by iconographer Andrei Rublev (1360s-?1430), a contemporary of Dmitri and Sergius.
* For the Church, this was an important battle because indictations were that this time the Tartars, who had their own peculiar form of religion, intended to extirpate Christianity violently in Moscow and Vladimir. “Every one did his or her share towards serving the fatherland,” wrote Russian-born historian Sonia Howe, and quoted an ancient chronicle, “‘some with the sword, others with prayer’”.
Précis
In 1380, the Golden Horde came up against Moscow after Grand Duke Dmitry refused to pay the extortionate tribute they demanded. Comforted by the blessing of monk Sergius of Radonezh, and emboldened by a vision of St Nicholas, Dmitry set out to meet the enemy, and on September 8th the two armies faced each other beside the Don. (58 / 60 words)
In 1380, the Golden Horde came up against Moscow after Grand Duke Dmitry refused to pay the extortionate tribute they demanded. Comforted by the blessing of monk Sergius of Radonezh, and emboldened by a vision of St Nicholas, Dmitry set out to meet the enemy, and on September 8th the two armies faced each other beside the Don.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, may, must, not, otherwise, unless, until, whereas.
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