This article is devoted to a canonization initiative — to bring the local (Vladimir diocese) saint, Maria Shvarnovna (Yasynia) (c. 1158–1206), grandmother of Alexander Nevsky, to the Church-wide veneration. Maria Yasynia is seen to be of Alanian (Ossetian) origin, and hence the great interest to her personality among Orthodox activists in today’s North Ossetia-Alania, as well as among some people from local government and Moscow ecclesiastical establishment.