Russian Ambassadors (987)
“…we did not know where we were, on heaven or on earth…” (report to Prince Vladimir, 987).
Coin from the time of Vladimir I of Kiev.
Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, is a pagan playboy with a harem of 800. He is cruel and powerful, subjugating much of Rus to himself. Ignoring the increase of Christianity among his subjects (his grandmother Olga had embraced the faith), he has erected many statues to his people’s ancient gods.
However, he comes to see that the pagan gods are unable to unify Rus. Becoming interested in the question of faith while planning a campaign against the Eastern Roman empire, he has sent embassies to the neighboring states of Bulgaria, Khazar, and Byzantium to examine their beliefs. They declare the Islam of Bulgaria too unhappy and deplore the “stench” of its principle city. The fact that Islam bans fermented drink and pork does not sit well with the Russians, for they cannot imagine life without either—especially the drink. Vladimir himself rejects the Judaism of his Khazar neighbors, for he says their loss of Jerusalem and its temple proves God has forsaken them. As for German Catholicism, the ambassadors describe it as plain and dour. But their impression of Orthodoxy is altogether different:
“And we went into the Greek lands, and we were led into a place where they serve their God [St. Sophia], and we did not know where we were, on heaven or on earth; and do not know how to tell about this. All we know is that God lives there with people and their service is better than in any other country. We cannot forget that beauty since each person, if he eats something sweet, will not take something bitter afterwards; so we cannot remain any more in paganism.”
Of all Vladimir’s neighbors, Byzantium is the most powerful. This does not deter him from threatening war with Constantinople if Emperor Basil II will not give him his sister Anna in marriage. Basil replies that Christian women are only allowed to marry Christian men.
Vladimir agrees to be baptized. He puts away his pagan wives. Anna is sent to him with several priests who instruct and baptize him.
The change in Vladimir is significant. He becomes kinder and is filled with zeal to depose the old gods and convert his subjects to his new faith. He hews down or burns the statues of pagan gods and drags the image of Perun, the chief god, through the mud. He requires all of his subjects to embrace Christianity, which they do in a mass baptism. Having rejected the old gods, he builds many churches for the new. Russia becomes a leading Orthodox nation.
—Dan Graves
Dig a Little Deeper
- Bradbury, Doris. The Russian Orthodox Church. Moscow: Progress, 1982.
- Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society. “The Life of Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Volodymyr [Vladimir] of Kiev.” Orthodox America. http://www.roca.org/OA/59-60/59f.htm
- “Russian Christianity.” Christian History Magazine No. 18.
- Kubilius, Kerry. “Prince Vladimir – Eastern Orthodoxy.” http://eeuropeanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/origins_of_eastern_orthodoxy
- Shipman, Andrew J. “St. Vladimir the Great.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
- “Vladimir, St.” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
