Russian Prince, Russian Orthodox Church Saint. Alexander Nevsky was the Russian Prince of Novgorod from 1236 to 1240, 1241 to 1256, and 1258 to 1259; Grand Prince of Kiev from 1236 to 1252; and the Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1252 to 1263, which was some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history. In the 21st century, this area is part of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. He led the army that defeated the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Tavastian armies in the Battle of Neva on July 15, 1240, which was mainly over managing a port city and possible invasion. On April 3, 1242, he was in command of the Russian forces in the Battle of the Ice, defeating the German knights and the Estonian infantry. This victory determined whether the Western Roman Catholic Church or Eastern Orthodox Church would be the dominate faith in Russia. This conflict began after Pope Gregory IX coveted the Baltic region to be under the Roman Catholic Church. Although he was a military conqueror, he was a diplomat signing peace treaties with several neighboring countries. After becoming a local saint in 1381, he was canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547, with his feast days being celebrated on November 23rd and August 30th. In the 14th century the "Novgorod Chronicle" documented his accounts, which were about 100 years after the events. In one account, his description compared him to brave men of the Bible. After his uncle, George II of Vladimir, was killed in 1238 during the decades-long conflict of the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus, his father Yaroslav II of Vsevolodovich, became the Grand Prince of Vladimir. During this time of war, his uncle's entire family was loss. In 1236 Nevsky was elected the Prince of Novgorod, with his main function being a military commander in the city of Novgorod. In 1239 he married Paraskeviya, the daughter of the Prince of Polotsk and the couple had three sons and a daughter. Shortly before his death, he married Vasilisa and the couple had a son, Daniel, in 1261. Although none of his sons were as strong as him politically or in military command, his youngest son Daniel founded the house of Moscow, which subsequently reunited the northern Russian lands and ruled until 1598. Depending on which historian, Alexander Nevsky's collaboration with the Mongol conquerors is recorded in various lights: did he or not collaborate? It is clear that any political collaboration on his part with the Mongol was done to reduce the common people's suffering by interceding for them with the Khan. He became a Russian hero. As the highest order in Russia, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was created in 1725 by Catherine the Great. During World War II in July 1942, when Nazi Forces invaded the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin officially pronounced Alexander Nevsky as a national hero and established a military order in his name to rally his troops. While traveling, Nevsky died but his remains were returned to Vladimir. Nevsky's first burial was shortly after his death on November 23, 1263, at the Great Abbey of the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in Vladimir. Peter I, the Great, order the remains to be removed to St Petersburg, and reburied for a second time at Alexander Nevsky Monastery in 1724. A 3rd burial took place in the same monastery, when Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter I's daughter, order a shrine to be built in 1750, including a massive sarcophagus made of one and a half tons of pure silver. During the years of the Soviet Union in May of 1922, his silver sarcophagus was relocated to the State Hermitage Museum without his relics.