Maria Shvarnovna

Maria Shvarnovna (Russian: Мария Шварновна; c. 1158 – 19 March/19 May 1205/1206), also known by her monastic name Marfa, was the grand princess consort of Vladimir as the first wife of Vsevolod III ("the Big Nest"). She is venerated as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.

She gave birth to at least 12 children, hence Vsevolod's sobriquet. Four of her sons, Konstantin, George, Yaroslav and Sviatoslav, succeeded their father as grand princes of Vladimir, and Yaroslav went on to become grand prince of Kiev around the time of the Mongol conquest. As Yaroslav's mother, she is thus the paternal grandmother of Alexander Nevsky, whose son, Daniel of Moscow, founded the Muscovite branch of the Rurik dynasty.

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