Well before Ancient Russia, in the 1st century, Apostle Andrew the First-Called told his disciples as he stood on the Dnieper River: “You see the mountains? They will witness God's grace in glory and there will stand a great city with many churches…” And he then climbed up to the top of the mountains, gave his blessings, left a cross, said a prayer and came down and later on there sprang up the city Kiev.... This comes from the Russian Chronicles "The Tale of Bygone Years" by Nestor the Monk.
Seeds of Christianity, scattered by the first missionaries, starting from Andrew the First-Called, took nearly one thousand years to put forth shoots in the land of our Eastern Slav forefathers. Until the 10th century Eastern Slavs practiced paganism worshipping various gods that stood for forces of nature and honoured the deceased forefathers as patrons. Slavs had no temples or priests. Instead, as the historians argue, they cultivated magi and sorcerers. Open heights served as convenient places to put up statues of deities made of wood or stone with altars before or around them. Sometimes the offerings included human sacrifices. The first attempt to impart Christian values to our Slav forefathers was made by Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga - we told you of her in the previous program. A widow after the death of Prince Igor, Olga ran the Ancient Russian state from the position of wisdom and discipline. In 955 (on other estimates in 957) Olga made a long trip to Byzantium, Constantinople, to borrow Christian wisdom and get christened. At the christening the Patriarch of Constantinople told her: "Blessed are you among Russian women, for out you came of the darkness for the light. And blessed you will be in the hearts of future generations of the Russians and your grandchildren".
The princess took a priest with her and back home he baptized many of her entourage. And in the wake of her comeback from Byzantium Christian churches were built too. Olga's most ardent wish was to see her son Svyatoslav a Christian too. But a brave warrior as he was, Svyatoslav remained adamantly against it. I know, he said, that I'd better listen to you, mother. But even if I wanted to get baptized, my people will not follow me. If I adopt the Christian law alone, my boyars and dignitaries will laugh at me. So why should I take up an alien religion that will drive people away from me and leave me in isolation unneeded and unwanted. That was in the chronicles. But there must have been other reasons too. Along with devotion to his armed force Prince Svyatoslav couldn't accept the idea of salvation or understand the meaning and value of Christian faith to the state. Princess Olga lived a long life, the last fifteen years of her life - in Christian faith. She died in July 969. 30 years after her death the Princess's relics were retrieved, untouched by decay. In the presence of masses of people the Holy relics were ceremoniously put into a stone coffin and taken to the newly-built Church of the Holy Mother of God in Kiev. That marked the first in Russian history public ritual to pay tribute to a saint. According to the chronicles, on top of the stone sarcophagus was a small window and when someone with true belief in the sainthood of Princess Olga approached it, the window opened all on its own revealing to the eye the undecayed body of the blessed princess, radiating light like a sun. Many people are said to have become cured of various diseases at the coffin. If approached by a non-believer the window of the stone coffin stayed shut. What Princess Olga strived so much to prepare Russia for was carried out by her grandson, Prince Vladimir, who made Christianity the official religion in Russia. Prince Vladimir was Svyatoslav's son, Olga's grandson and Rurik's great-grandson. Half of his life the Prince was a heathen, belligerent and sly, who had many wives. Even though he as well as his brothers was raised by their grandmother, Princess Olga, he remained deaf to the teachings of Christ and stayed ignorant to the Christian values. More than that, after killing his brother Yaropolk, he seized power and came to reign in Russia. In all likelihood, the Prince's conscience never left him in peace after the fratricide, for the pagan faith forgave none of such acts either. So, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the gods, the Prince plunged in earnest worship of the idols to which he brought offerings in large numbers. Vladimir was particularly generous to Perun, the god of thunder and lightning and the patron of prince's power. He made the god's statue with a silver head and gold moustache. In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith: “Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God - He is worshipped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!” An open abuse of the deities, to which most of our forefathers bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. Rampant crowds killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann. Later on, after the overall christening of Russia, people came to regard them as the first Christian martyrs in Russia and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them - July 25th. Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann Ancient Russia saw persecutions against Christians, many of which had to escape or conceal their belief. Churches stood ripped.... However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not in the last place, for political considerations too. The chronicles have it that different preachers came to the Prince, each offering a particular faith. Vladimir spoke to Muslims, Catholics, Jews but for different reasons rejected all the religions. Finally, a Greek philosopher told the prince of the Old and New Testaments and presented him with a canvas depicting Doomsday. When he learned of what the unrepentant were in for, Prince Vladimir went numb with horror and after a short pause said with a sigh: “Blessed are the good doers and damned are the evil!” The Greek philosopher walked off with numerous gifts and honours. In 987 Prince Vladimir summoned boyars and city elders seeking counsel on all proposals from the religious emissaries. The boyars and elders pronounced the following judgment: “Do remember, Your Honour, that each naturally praised his own religion. Should You want to find what each religion really is, send your men to different countries and let them tell you of how different peoples serve God.” And out did the prince send his men to different countries... The ambassador returned each with his own story. But no other religion had impressed them as much as the Greek. “And we stepped on the Greek soil,” they recalled, “and they showed us their place of worship. And we knew not whether it's heaven or earth, for nowhere had we seen such a beauty, and we know not even how to speak of it. We knew only that God was there with people and that their service was better than anywhere. The beauty we've seen there will now never go, for never will you take the bitter if you've tasted the sweet. Likewise, no longer can we practice paganism.” The story is narrated by Saint Nestor in "The Tale of Bygone Years", where he described the Prince's men as people of wisdom, who revealed such a profound understanding of Orthodoxy. The boyars provided the following argumentation: “If the Greek religion were unworthy, Your grandmother, Princess Olga, the wisest of women, would have never adopted it.” After learning thereby of various beliefs and getting repeated counseling from the boyars and the elders, Vladimir resolved to take the Greek religion. But he was too proud to address Byzantium in person for fear of being looked upon as a beggar. In 988, after conquering the rich Greek city of Hersonissos Prince Vladimir sent ambassadors to Byzantine Emperors Vasily and Konstantin to announce that he wanted to marry their sister, Princess Anna. In case of refusal he threatened to take Constantinople. So the emperors had to concede. But a Christian cannot marry a pagan, even if he is the prince of a powerful and prosperous state. Vladimir had to be baptized and let go of his four wives and numerous concubines. And he promised to do so.
After the christening Prince Vladimir became Vasily. He built a new church in Hersonissos and returned the city to the Byzantine emperors. He took no prisoners. Instead, he invited with him several priests and in place of contribution took church vessels and the relics of saint Clement and his disciple Fim. After getting enlightened through the Holy Gospels Prince Vladimir was keen on his subjects to follow suit too. For a start he ordered the destruction of all idols, which were dumped in rivers, cut with axes or burnt. When all pagan shrines were destroyed Vladimir ordered all people to be baptized in the Dnieper and other rivers. Orthodox cathedrals rose up where heathen temples used to stand. Prince Vladimir built a wooden church in Kiev in honour of Saint Vasily, his heavenly patron. Ironically, the church was built on the very place where the idol of the deity Perun had once stood. From Constantinople the Prince called skillful architects to build a stone church in honour of the Holy Mother of God on the place where the Christians Fyodor and his son Ioann fell victim to the pagans in 983. By the year 996 the church was completed and Prince Vladimir gave it the crosses and vessels he had brought from Hersonissos. He also ordered that all services in the church be conducted by priests from Hersonissos. And he gave one tenth of his income for the maintenance of this establishment. After the Prince and Princess died, the church housed the marble shrine of Prince Vladimir and the sepulchre of Princess Anna. The christening caused a profound transformation in Prince Vladimir changing his thoughts and looks. Nothing reminded of his pagan past. He was terrified of hurting anyone and took up arms only when it was necessary to defend his Motherland. The Prince ordered schools to be built to teach Slavic alphabet and the Bible to the youngsters. He was helpful to the poor and sick and threw feasts for ordinary folks in cities and villages.
Christianity took roots in Russia gradually, in continuous struggle with paganism. Even so, schools for future clergymen from among the Russians opened all the same and the Russian Orthodox Church came into being. Christening marked a turning point in the lives of Russian people. Under the influence of the church pagan traditions vanished and enlightenment and culture arrived accompanied by rich literature translated from Greek, exquisite architecture and icon painting. The christening expanded Ancient Russia's ties with the rest of the Christian world.
Illustrations:
11/12/2004
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On the place
where Andrew the First-Called said the teachings of Christ they built a
church in his honour several centuries later...
The head of
the Byzantine church instructed Olga in the values of the religion, the
Christian set of rules and prayer conduct and introduced her to the Ten
Commandments. In the christening Olga got the name Yelena.
Princess Anna
escorted by religious figures and civil officials set out to Hersonissos
by sea. The chronicles say Prince Vladimir had eye trouble at the time
and couldn't see anything. The princess convinced him of the urgency of
his being baptized. As soon as the priest laid his hand on the prince his
vision returned to him and the boyars, stunned by the miracle, got baptized
in the same Saint Vasily Church on Hersonissos's city square. The surviving
foundation of the church is now shown to tourists and pilgrims who arrive
in the Crimea, which is now the territory of the Ukraine.
Vladimir's faith
in Christianity took deep roots in him. He did whatever he could to live
up to the honour of being called a Christian and became both a wise ruler
and a spiritual leader to his people, who lovingly called him Vladimir
the Red Sun. The church ordained the Prince in sainthood and made him Equal-to-the-Apostles.
Russia's Orthodox believers mark July 28th as Commemoration Day for the
Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Vladimir.
