Dormition Cathedral and the Godunov Family Vault

In less than two years, Boris Godunov was buried three times. The final burial took place here, beside Dormition Cathedral.

In April sixteen oh five, Boris Godunov, an elected tsar and the founder of a new dynasty, died suddenly. He left the throne to his sixteen-year-old son Fyodor. At that time, False Dmitry I was advancing on Moscow—a pretender who passed himself off as the surviving son of Ivan IV and sought the tsar's throne. The army went over to his side, and the Godunovs were overthrown in Moscow. By False Dmitry's order, Fyodor and his mother, Tsaritsa Mariya, were killed.

Boris had been buried as a sovereign in Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Now his body was removed from the royal burial vault and taken to his wife and son at a small Moscow monastery on Lubyanka, then called Varsonofievsky Monastery. Thus the second burial was meant to cancel the first: False Dmitry deprived his opponent even of a place among the dead tsars.

A year later, False Dmitry was killed. The new tsar, Vasily Shuysky, seeking to secure his own right to the throne, ordered the Godunovs to be moved once more—this time with honors. According to an account by a contemporary, Boris's coffin was carried by twenty monks, while Mariya's and Fyodor's coffins were carried by twenty boyars each. Clergy, princes, and courtiers followed. Those who had recently been secretly laid in the monastery cemetery were now escorted by a great state procession.

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius was chosen for the burial. The Godunov family vault had previously been at Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, so this choice was not a family custom. Historians link it to Boris's longstanding contributions to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. His little daughter Irina had already been buried here, and precious coverings, icons, and liturgical vessels donated by the tsar were kept in the monastery churches.

Boris, Mariya, and Fyodor were laid in the western porch of Dormition Cathedral—an enclosed space before the entrance. The cathedral itself was dedicated to the Dormition, the church feast marking the death of the Mother of God. Burial beside the Lavra's largest church restored the family's honor and its right to commemoration in church services, but Boris was still not returned to the Kremlin's royal burial vault.

The procession was accompanied by Kseniya Godunova, Boris's only surviving daughter. False Dmitry forced her to take monastic vows under the name Olga. After the deaths of her parents and brother, she lived in various monasteries and, before her death, wished to be laid beside her family. In sixteen twenty-two, she was buried in the same porch.

Gravestones with cloth covers stood over the four graves, candles were lit before them, and the walls were covered with rows of icons. On days of commemoration, a red velvet cover with silver images of saints, pearls, and gold embroidery was placed on Fyodor's tomb. This cover has survived in a museum collection.

In the early seventeen eighties, the western porch was dismantled. The graves were not moved: a low white pavilion with a roof and a cross was built over them. That is why the Godunov Family Vault now stands outside, to the left of the cathedral entrance. Four slabs on its facade name Boris, Mariya, Fyodor, and Kseniya, Olga in monastic life; beneath them are the very burials that Vasily Shuysky ordered to be arranged beside the cathedral.