Charitina of Lithuania (died 1281) is a saint in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

. Her feast is on 5 October. Because her

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

did not survive, very little is known about her life. Charitina was a noblewoman from the pagan

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

who became a nun in

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

. Possibly she was arranged to marry a

Prince of Novgorod The Prince of Novgorod (russian: Князь новгородский, ''knyaz novgorodskii'') was the chief executive of the Republic of Novgorod. The office was originally an appointed one until the late eleventh or early twelfth century, then bec ...

, but that could be a conflation of Charitina with who was betrothed to Fyodor, eldest son of

Yaroslav II of Vladimir Yaroslav II (), Christian name ''Theodor'' () (8 February 1191 – 30 September 1246) was the Grand Prince of Vladimir, Russia, Vladimir (1238–1246) who helped to restore his country and capital after the Mongol invasion of Rus'. Prince of Per ...

. In Novgorod, unmarried Charitina entered the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul. There she earned the reputation of piousness and became an abbess. In 2009, Lithuanian historian Algimantas Bučys raised a hypothesis that she might be a daughter of

Tautvilas Tautvilas (or Tautvila; died 1263) was Duke of Polotsk and one of Dausprungas' sons and nephews of King of Lithuania Mindaugas. Tautvilas together with his brother Gedvydas and uncle Vykintas waged a civil war against Mindaugas. The war resulted ...

, who escaped to Novgorod after her father's murder by

Treniota Treniota ( be, Транята; ''Troniata''; c. 1210–1264) was the Grand Duke of Lithuania (1263–1264). Treniota was the nephew of Mindaugas, the first and only king of Lithuania. While Mindaugas had converted to Christianity in order to disc ...

References

{{Authority control 1281 deaths Lithuanian saints Eastern Orthodox saints 13th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown Christian female saints of the Middle Ages 13th-century Lithuanian people 13th-century Lithuanian women