Saint Vladimir, Great Prince of Russia

Life

Named Basil at baptism. The son of Prince Svyatoslav, and grandson of Igor and Olga, Vladimir was at first wholly a pagan, both in belief and in life. Learning that other faiths existed, he began carefully to examine which of them was the best. For this reason he also sent an embassy to Constantinople. When the delegates returned, they informed the prince that they had been at a service in the Orthodox church, Hagia Sophia, and that they had been "beside themselves, not knowing whether they were on earth or in heaven." This moved Vladimir to be baptized and to baptize his people. The chief idol, Perun, was dragged down from the hill of Kiev and cast into the river Dnieper. Having received the Christian faith, Vladimir completely changed his life and exerted every effort to faithfully fulfill all the precepts of this faith. He ordered that churches be built throughout his realm in place of the destroyed idols, and he himself built a beautiful church to the Most Holy Theotokos in Kiev. This church was erected on the very same site where earlier Saints Theodore and his son John had suffered martyrdom for Christ (see July 12). With the same irresistible force with which Vladimir had formerly defended idolatry, he now spread Christianity. He reposed in the Lord in the year 1015.