St. Alexander Nevsky

Prince of Novgorod and then Grand Prince of Vladimir in the century of the Mongol conquest. He beat the Swedes on the Neva in 1240, which gave him his name, and the Teutonic Knights on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242, and he turned down the Pope’s offer of alliance against the Mongols on the condition of submitting to Rome. To the Mongols he made himself a tributary and went to the Horde four times to plead for his people, choosing, as the Church remembers it, to save Rus by humility where he could not save it by arms. He took the monastic schema on his deathbed and died in 1263. Feast: November 23.