Family and Lineage
Mstislav was the fourth of five sons and the eighth of nine children of Rostislav Mstislavich, founder of the Rostislavichi branch of the Rurikid dynasty centered on Smolensk. His grandfather was Mstislav I of Kiev, son of Vladimir Monomakh. His father, Rostislav, ruled as Prince of Smolensk, briefly as Prince of Novgorod, and as Grand Prince of Kiev across three periods between 1154 and 1167; among Mstislav's brothers were Davyd, Roman, and Rurik Rostislavich, who were themselves prominent in the dynastic politics of the age.
Mstislav's first wife was Feodosiya Rostislavna of Ryazan. Their children included Mstislav Mstislavich, surnamed Udaloy (the Daring), Vladimir Mstislavich of Pskov, and David, continuing the family's role in the principalities of the Rus' lands.
Princely and Military Career
Mstislav held a succession of principalities: he was Prince of Belgorod in 1161 and again from 1171 to 1173, Prince of Toropets from 1167, Prince of Smolensk from 1175 to 1177, and finally Prince of Novgorod from 1179, having entered the city on November 1, 1179.
His military career spanned the dynastic conflicts of the period. In 1168 he took part in the campaign against the Polovtsy (Cumans) under Grand Prince Mstislav Iziaslavich. In 1170 he and his brother Roman, together with Yury Bogolyubsky, laid siege to Novgorod, and in the early 1170s he assisted his brothers in installing and removing rulers at Kiev. In 1174 he defended Vyshgorod against a nine-week siege by Andrey Bogolyubsky. In the winter of 1179–1180, as Prince of Novgorod, he led the Novgorodians on campaign against the Chud tribes.
Sources describe him as a prince who 'warred only for glory' and who 'despised gold and silver,' giving all the booty of his campaigns to the Church — the qualities that contributed to his later veneration.
Legacy and Commemoration
Mstislav is addressed in The Tale of Igor's Campaign, the celebrated medieval Rus' poem, although he had died six years before the campaign it recounts took place.
He is commemorated on June 14 (Old Style), corresponding to June 27 (New Style). The OCA lists him among the saints of that day, but its synaxarion entry carries no biographical text, noting only that he is venerated. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate.
Relics & Shrines
Mstislav's remains were discovered incorrupt in 1634. They now rest in a gypsum sarcophagus set along the south wall of the Chapel of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Novgorod.
