Rule and the Rise of Vladimir
Andrew's decision in 1155 to leave Vyshgorod, near Kiev, and settle in Vladimir reoriented the political weight of the Rus' lands toward the northeast. From Vladimir he pursued an ambitious program of building and consolidation. Between 1158 and 1164 he raised fortifications around the city and erected the Dormition Cathedral, and near Vladimir he built the residence of Bogolyubovo, which became his favored seat and from which his epithet is popularly connected.
His ambitions extended south. In March 1169 a coalition under his son Mstislav Andreevich sacked Kiev, plundering churches of religious artwork, books, and valuables; Andrew himself remained in the northeast. After the sack he claimed the title of Grand Prince while keeping his residence at Vladimir, and installed his brother Gleb as prince of Kiev, an arrangement that ended with Gleb's death on 20 January 1171.
Churches and the Vladimir Icon
Andrew is remembered as one of the great church-builders of medieval Rus'. When he moved to Vladimir in 1155 he carried with him an icon of the Mother of God from Vyshgorod, which became known as the Vladimir icon of the Theotokos and one of the most venerated images in the Russian tradition.
His building program included the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir and, by tradition, the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, dated to about 1165 and standing at the confluence of the Nerl and Klyazma rivers near Bogolyubovo. The church honors the Intercession of the Theotokos and was later inscribed, in 1992, on the UNESCO World Heritage List among the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal.
Death
On the night of 28-29 June 1174 a group of boyars, numbering about twenty according to the chronicles, burst into Andrew's chambers and killed him in his bed. The chronicles name an assailant called Peter and recount that the prince's hand was severed in the attack; a forensic examination of his remains in 1965 found numerous cut marks on the arm. His burial is commemorated in the church calendar on July 4.
Relics & Shrines
Andrew's relics are kept in the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, the cathedral he himself had built, where he is venerated as a right-believing prince and passion-bearer.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: Andrew was canonized as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1702, and his burial is commemorated in the synaxarion on July 4. The icon he brought to Vladimir endured in the Russian Church as the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God.
Traditional Accounts: The synaxarion connects his epithet 'Bogoliubsky' ('God-loving') with his devotion to prayer, and tradition associates the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl with a son lost in his campaigns.
