The article establishes that the role of the Rus Archbishop Peter at the First Council of Lyon (1245) was not limited to conveying sensational information about the Tatars, as is usually believed. Peter was willing to resume negotiations between the Apostolic See and the rulers of the Byzantine (Nicene) Empire on the union of Churches, which continued with varying success throughout the thirteenth century. In the mid-1240s the Rus church hierarchs, who headed the Kiev (all Rus) Metropolitanate of the Byzantine Church, played an important, yet underestimated by researchers, role in establishing direct contacts between the Byzantine and Roman Churches and resuming negotiations for church unity.
The Galician-Volhynian prince Roman Mstislavich became the main military ally of the Byzantine Empire in the early 13th century. The circumstances and the time of Roman’s campaign in Niketas Choniates’ account are the same as in the Russian chronicles reporting the steppe campaigns of the prince. All the Byzantine sources name Roman Mstislavich the “igemon of Galicia”. The term igemon, unlike other Byzantine titles of Rusian princes, meant the Emperor’s ally and relative (or in-law). The alliance between Alexios III and Roman led also to more stable relations with the Rusian population of the Lower Dniester and the Lower Danube. The military aid that Roman rendered to Alexios III was guaranteed by Roman’s marriage to the niece of Alexios III, the elder daughter of the overthrown emperor Isaak II.
The influence of Grand Princess Euphrosyne (second wife of Prince Roman Mstislavovitch) explains the appearance among the Galician-Volhynian princes of Christian names which were unusual and unique for the Rurikides. This is the name Daniel, which was later included into the name list of the Moscow princes. This name spread among the princes due to the expansion of the cult of St Daniel the Stylite and the rising interest in the attributes of Stylitism. This can be seen in sphragistics and in the numerous architectural monuments of Galician-Volhynian Rus' of the 13th–early 14th century. Thanks to the family links between the Galician-Volhynian and the Vladimir-Suzdal princes, this cult spread in the North-Eastern Rus' and later to Moscow.
The fact that Euphrosyne of Galicia was the daughter of Basileus Isaak II explains the unexpected rise of interest in Stylitism among the princes of Rus' and their milieu. According to Niketas Choniates, Emperor Isaak II especially sympathized with the Stylites and the ascetics and patronized them. Thus he astonished his contemporaries, since the Stylites had lost the influence over the emperors that they had exerted at the time of iconoclasm. The Byzantine hagiography concerning Sts. Daniel the Stylite and Leo the Great Tsar explains the connection between the names of Daniel and Leo among the descendants of Roman Mstislavich. Daniel the Stylite was the spiritual father and the main adviser of Emperor Leo I. Apparently this relationship was reflected in the names of the father and the son, the Galician-Volhynian princes Daniel Romanovich and Lev Danilovich.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.