Wednesday, July 15

Medieval · c. 958 – 1015

Great Prince Vladimir of Kiev

Equal-to-the-Apostles, baptizer of Rus

Grandson of St Olga, Vladimir seized the throne of Kiev as a thoroughly pagan prince — the chronicles are frank about his wars, his idols, and his many wives. The Russian Primary Chronicle tells, with legendary color, how his envoys investigated the faiths of neighboring peoples and reported of the Greek liturgy in Hagia Sophia, 'we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth.' Around 988 he was baptized at Chersonesus, married the Byzantine princess Anna, and summoned Kiev to the Dnieper, where the people were baptized en masse and the idol of Perun was dragged into the river. The chronicle describes a genuinely changed man: feasts for the poor, carts of bread and meat sent through the city, such reluctance to execute criminals that his bishops had to urge justice upon him. He reposed in 1015; his sons Boris and Gleb became the first canonized saints of Rus.

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