The Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal of the Apostles. Few names in
the annals of history can compare in significance with the name of St
Vladimir, the Baptizer of Rus, who stands at the beginning of the
spiritual destiny of the Russian Church and the Russian Orthodox people.
Vladimir was the grandson of St Olga, and he was the son of Svyatoslav
(+ 972). His mother, Malusha (+ 1001) was the daughter of Malk
Liubechanin, whom historians identify with Mal, prince of the Drevlyani.
Having subdued an uprising of the Drevlyani and conquered their cities,
Princess Olga gave orders to execute Prince Mal for his attempt to
marry her after he murdered her husband Igor, and she took to herself
Mal’s children, Dobrynya and Malusha. Dobrynya grew up to be a valiant
brave warrior, endowed with a mind for state affairs, and he was later
on an excellent help to his nephew Vladimir in matters of military and
state administration.
The “capable girl” Malusha became a
Christian (together with Great Princess Olga at Constantinople), but she
preserved in herself a bit of the mysterious darkness of the pagan
Drevlyani forests. Thus she fell in love with the austere warrior
Svyatoslav, who against the will of his mother Olga made her his wife.
The enraged Olga, regarding as unseemly the marriage of her
“housekeeper” and captive servant to her son Svyatoslav, heir to the
Great Kiev principality, sent Malusha away to her own native region not
far from Vybut. And there in about the year 960 was born the boy with
the Russian pagan name Volodimir, meaning peaceful ruler, ruling with a
special talent for peace.
In the year 970 Svyatoslav set out on a
campaign from which he was fated not to return. He had divided the
Russian Land among his three sons. At Kiev Yaropolk was prince; at
Ovrucha, the center of the Drevlyani lands, was Oleg; at Novgorod was
Vladimir. In his first years as prince, we see Vladimir as a fierce
pagan. He headed a campaign, in which the whole of pagan Rus is
sympathetic to him, against Yaropolk the Christian, or in any case,
according to the chronicles, “having given great freedom to the
Christians”, on July 11, 978 he entered into Kiev, having become the
“sole ruler” of the Kiev realm, “having subdued the surrounding lands,
some by peaceful means, and the unsubmissive ones by the sword.”
Though
Vladimir indulged himself in a wild, sensuous life, he was far from the
libertine that they sometimes portray him as being. He “shepherded his
land with truth, valor and reason”, as a good and diligent master, of
necessity he extended and defended its boundaries by force of arms, and
in returning from military campaigns, he made for his companions and for
all Kiev liberal and merry feasts.
But the Lord prepared him for
another task. Where sin increases, there, in the words of the Apostle,
grace abounds (Rom. 5: 20). “And upon him came visitation of the Most
High, and the All-Merciful eye of the Good God gazed upon him, and shone
forth the thought in his heart, of understanding the vanity of idolous
delusion, and of appealing to the One God, Creator of all things both
visible and invisible.” The matter of accepting Baptism was facilitated
through external circumstances. The Byzantine Empire was in upheaval
under the blows of the mutinous regiments of Bardas Skliros and Bardas
Phocas, each of whom sought to gain the imperial throne. In these
difficult circumstances the emperors, the coregent brothers Basil the
Bulgar-Slayer and Constantine, turned for help to Vladimir.
Events
unfolded quickly. In August 987 Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself
Emperor and moved against Constantinople, and in autumn of that same
year the emissaries of Emperor Basil were at Kiev. “And having exhausted
his (Basil’s) wealth, it compelled him to enter into an alliance with
the Emperor of the Russians. They were his enemies, but he besought
their help,” writes one of the Arab chronicles of events in the 980s.
“And the Emperor of the Russians consented to this, and made common
cause with him.”
As a reward for his military help, Vladimir asked
for the hand of the emperors’ sister Anna, which for the Byzantines was
an unheard of audacity. Princesses of the imperial lineage did not
marry “barbarian” rulers, even if they were Christians. At the same time
the emperor Otto the Great was seeking the hand of Anna for his son,
and he was refused. However, in Vladimir’s case Constantinople was
obliged to consent.
An agreement was concluded, according to which
Vladimir had to send the emperors six thousand Varangians, and to
accept holy Baptism. Under these conditions he would receive the hand of
the imperial daughter Anna. Thus in the strife of human events the will
of God directed the entering of Rus into the grace-filled bosom of the
Ecumenical Church. Great Prince Vladimir accepted Baptism and sent the
military assistance to Byzantium. With the aid of the Russians, the
mutineers were destroyed and Bardas Phocas killed. But the Greeks,
gladdened by their unexpected deliverance, were in no hurry to fulfill
their part of the bargain.
Vexed at the Greek duplicity, Prince
Vladimir “hastened to collect his forces” and he moved “against Korsun,
the Greek city,” the ancient Chersonessos. The “impenetrable” rampart of
the Byzantine realm on the Black Sea fell. It was one of the vitally
important hubs of the economic and mercantile links of the empire. This
blow was so much felt, that its echo resounded throughout all the
regions of Byzantium.
Vladimir again had the upper hand. His
emissaries, the commanders Oleg and Sjbern soon arrived in
Constantinople for the imperial daughter. Eight days passed in Anna’s
preparation, during which time her brothers consoled her, stressing the
significance of the opportunity before her: to enable the enlightening
of the Russian realm and its lands, and to make them forever friends of
the Byzantine realm. At Taurida St Vladimir awaited her, and to his
titles there was added a new one: Caesar (Tsar). The haughty rulers of
Constantinople had to accede also in this, to bestow upon their new
brother-in-law the imperial insignia. In certain of the Greek
historians, St Vladimir is termed from these times as a “mighty
basileios-king”, he coins money in the Byzantine style and is depicted
on it with the symbols of imperial might: in imperial attire, and on his
head the imperial crown, and in his right hand the sceptre with cross.
Together
with the empress Anna, there arrived for the Russian See Metropolitan
Michael ordained by holy Patriarch Nicholas II Chrysoberges. He came
with his retinue and clergy, and many holy relics and other holy things.
In ancient Chersonessos, where each stone brings to mind St Andrew the
First-Called, there took place the marriage-crowning of St Vladimir and
Blessed Anna, both reminiscent and likewise affirming the oneness of the
Gospel of Christ in Rus and in Byzantium. Korsun, the “empress’s
dowry”, was returned to Byzantium. In the spring of 988 the Great Prince
and his wife set out through the Crimea, Taman and the Azov lands,
which had come into the complexion of his vast realm on the return trip
to Kiev. Leading the princely cortege with frequent Services of
Thanksgiving and incessant priestly singing they carried crosses, icons
and holy relics. It seemed, that the Ecumenical Holy Church was moving
into the spacious Russian land, and renewed in the font of Baptism, Holy
Rus came forth to meet Christ and His Church.
Then followed an
unforgettable and quite singular event in Russian history: the morning
of the Baptism of the Kievans in the waters of the River Dneipr. On the
evening before, St Vladimir declared throughout the city: “If anyone
does not go into the river tomorrow, be they rich or poor, beggar or
slave, that one shall be my enemy.” The sacred wish of the holy Prince
was fulfilled without a murmur: “all our land glorified Christ with the
Father and the Holy Spirit at the same time.”
It is difficult to
overestimate the deep spiritual transformation of the Russian people
effected by the prayers of St Vladimir, in every aspect of its life and
world-view. In the pure Kievan waters, as in a “bath of regeneration”,
there was realized a sacramental transfiguration of the Russian
spiritual element, the spiritual birth of the nation, called by God to
unforeseen deeds of Christian service to mankind.
“Then did the
darkness of the idols begin to lift from us, and the dawn of Orthodoxy
appear, and the Sun of the Gospel illumined our land.” In memory of this
sacred event, the regeneration of Rus by water and the Spirit, the
Russian Church established the custom of an annual church procession “to
the water” on August 1. Later, the Feast of the Procession of the
Honorable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, which Russia
celebrated with the Greek Church, was combined with the Feast of the
All-Merciful Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos (established by St
Andrew Bogoliubsky in the year 1164). In this combination of feasts
there is found a precise expression of the Russian theological
consciousness, for which both Baptism and the Cross are inseparable.
Everywhere
throughout Holy Rus, from the ancient cities to the far outposts, St
Vladimir gave orders to destroy the pagan sanctuaries, to flog the
idols, and in their place to clear land in the hilly woods for churches,
in which altars would be consecrated for the Bloodless Sacrifice.
Churches of God grew up along the face of the earth, at high elevated
places, and at the bends of the rivers, along the ancient trail “from
the Variangians to the Greeks” figuratively as road signs and lamps of
national holiness. Concerning the famed church-building activity of St
Vladimir, the Metropolitan of Kiev St Hilarion (author of the “Word on
Law and Grace”) exclaimed: “They demolished the pagan temples, and built
up churches, they destroyed the idols and produced holy icons, the
demons have fled, and the Cross has sanctified the cities.”
From
the early centuries of Christianity it was the custom to raise up
churches upon the ruins of pagan sanctuaries or upon the blood of the
holy martyrs. Following this practice, St Vladimir built the church of
St Basil the Great upon a hill, where a sanctuary of Perun had been
located, and he built the stone church of the Dormition of the Most Holy
Theotokos (Desyatinnaya) on the place of the martyrdom of the holy
Varangian Martyrs (July 12). The magnificent temple was intended to
become the cathedral for the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus, and thus
the primal altar of the Russian Church. It was built in five years, and
was richly adorned with frescoes, crosses, icons and sacred vessels,
brought from Korsun. The day of the consecration of the church of the
Most Holy Theotokos, May 12 (in some manuscripts May 11), was ordered by
St Vladimir to be inserted into the Church calendar as an annual
celebration. This event was linked with other events celebrated on May
11, and it provided the new Church a twofold sense of continuity. Under
this day in the calendar is noted the churchly Founding of
Constantinople “dedicated by the holy emperor St Constantine as the new
capital of the Roman Empire, the city of Constantine is dedicated to the
Most Holy Theotokos (330). On this same day of May 11, the church of
Sophia, the Wisdom of God was consecrated at Kiev (in the year 960 under
St Olga). St Vladimir, having had the cathedral church consecrated to
the Most Holy Theotokos, followed the example of St Constantine in
dedicating the capital city of the Russian Land (Kiev) to the Queen of
Heaven.
Then a tithe or tenth was bestown on the Church; and since
this church had become the center of the All-Russian collection of
churchly tithes, they called it the Tithe church. The most ancient text
of the grant, or church rule by holy Prince Vladimir spoke thus: “For I
do bestow on this church of the Holy Mother of God a tenth of all my
principality, and also throughout all the Russian Land from all the
princely jurisdiction a tithe of squirrel-pelts, and from the merchant, a
tithe of the week, and from households each year, a tenth of every herd
and every livelihood, to the wondrous Mother of God and the wondrous
Savior.” The grant also specified “church people” as being free from the
jurisdictional power of the prince and his “tiuni” (officials) and
placed them under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan.
The
chronicle has preserved a prayer of St Vladimir, with which he turned to
the Almighty at the consecration of the Dormition Tithe church: “O Lord
God, look down from Heaven and behold, and visit Your vineyard, which
Your right hand has planted. And make this new people, whom You have
converted in heart and mind to know You, the True God. And look down
upon this Your church, which Your unworthy servant has built in the name
of the Mother Who gave birth to Thee, the Ever-Virgin Theotokos. And
whoever prays in this church, let his prayer be heard, through the
prayers of the All-Pure Mother of God.”
With the Tithe church and
Bishop Anastasius, certain historians have made a connection with the
beginnings of Russian chronicle writing. At it were compiled the Life of
St Olga and the account of the Varangian Martyrs in their original
form, and likewise the “Account, How in the Taking of Korsun, Vladimir
came to be Baptized.” Here also originated the early Greek redaction of
the Lives of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb.
During the time of
St Vladimir, the Kiev Metropolitan See was occupied successively by the
Metropolitan St Michael (September 30), Metropolitan Theophylactus, who
transferred to Kiev from the See of Armenian Sebaste (991-997),
Metropolitan Leontius (997-1008), and Metropolitan John I (1008-1037).
Through their efforts the first dioceses of the Russian Church were
opened: at Novgorod (its first representative was St Joachim of Korsun
(+ 1030), compiler of the Joachimov Chronicle), Vladimir-Volyn (opened
May 11, 992), Chernigov, Pereslavl, Belgorod, and Rostov. “And thus
throughout all the cities and villages there were set up churches and
monasteries, and the clergy increased, and the Orthodox Faith blossomed
forth and shone like the sun.”
To advance the Faith among the
newly enlightened people, learned people and schools were needed to help
prepare them. Therefore, St Vladimir and the holy Metropolitan Michael
“commanded fathers and mothers to take their young children and send
them to schools to learn reading and writing.” St Joachim of Korsun set
up such a school at Novgorod, and they did the same in other cities.
“And there were a multitude of schools of scholars, and of these were
there a multitude of philosophers.”
With a firm hand St Vladimir
held in check enemies at the frontiers, and he built fortified cities.
He was the first in Russian history to set up a “notched boundary,” a
line of defensive points against nomadic peoples. “Volodimir began to
set up cities along the Desna, along the Vystra, along the Trubezha,
along the Sula and along the Stugna. And he settled them with the
Novgorodians, the Smolyani, the Chuds and the Vyatichi. He made war
against the Pechenegs and defeated them.” But the real reason for his
success was the peaceful Christian preaching among the pagans of the
steppes.
In the Nikol’sk Chronicles under the year 990 was
written: “And in that same year there came to Volodimir at Kiev four
princes from the Bulgars and they were illumined with Divine Baptism.”
In the following year “the Pecheneg prince Kuchug came and accepted the
Greek faith, and he was baptized in the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and served Vladimir with a pure heart.”
Under the influence of the holy prince several apparent foreigners were
also baptized. For example, the Norwegian “koenig” (king) Olaf
Trueggvason (+ 1000) who lived several years at Kiev, and also the
renowned Torvald the Wanderer, founder of a monastery of St John the
Forerunner along the Dneipr near Polotsk, among others. In faraway
Iceland the poet-skalds called God the “Protector of the Greeks and
Russians.”
In addition to the Christian preaching, there were the
renowned feasts of St Vladimir. After Liturgy on Sundays and Church
Feasts there were put out abundant feasting tables for the Kievans, they
rang the bells, choirs sang praise, the “transported infirm” sang
bylini-ballads and spiritual verses. On May 12, 996, for example, on the
occasion of the consecration of the Tithe church, the prince “made a
bright feast.” He distributed goods “to many of the poor, and destitute
and wanderers, and through the churches and the monasteries. To the sick
and the needy he delivered through the streets casks and barrels of
mead, and bread, and meat, and fish, and cheese, desiring that all might
come and eat, glorifying God”. Feasts were likewise celebrated in honor
of the victories of Kievan warriors, and the regiments of Vladimir’s
retinue: of Dobrynya, Alexander Popovich, Rogda the Bold.
In the
year 1007 St Vladimir transferred the relics of St Olga to the Tithe
church. Four years later, in 1011, his spouse and companion in many of
his undertakings, the Blessed Empress Anna, was also buried there. After
her death the prince entered into a new marriage with the young
daughter of the German Graf Kuno von Enningen, granddaughter of the
emperor Otto the Great.
The era of St Vladimir was a crucial
period for the formation of Orthodox Rus. The unification of the Slavic
lands and the formation of state boundaries under the domain of the
Rurikovichi resulted from a strenuous spiritual and political struggle
with neighboring tribes and states. The Baptism of Rus by Orthodox
Byzantium was a most important step in its self-definition as a state.
The chief enemy of Vladimir became Boleslav the Brave, whose plans
included the extensive unification of the West Slavic and East Slavic
tribes under the aegis of Catholic Poland. This rivalry arose back when
Vladimir was still a pagan: “In the year 6489 (981). Volodimir went
against the Lakhs and took their cities, Peremyshl, Cherven, and other
cities, which be under Rus.” The final years of the tenth century are
likewise filled with the wars of Vladimir and Boleslav.
After a
brief lull (the first decade of the eleventh century), the “great
stand-off” entered into a new phase: in the year 1013 a conspiracy
against St Vladimir was discovered at Kiev. Svyatopolk the Accursed, who
was married to a daughter of Boleslav, yearned for power. The
instigator of the conspiracy was Boleslav’s cleric, the Kolobzheg
Catholic bishop Reibern.
The conspiracy of Svyatopolk and Reibern
was an all-out threat to the historical existence of the Russian state
and the Russian Church. St Vladimir took decisive measures. All the
three involved were arrested, and Reibern soon died in prison.
St
Vladimir did not take revenge on those that “opposed and hated” him.
Under the pretense of feigned repentance, Svyatopolk was set free.
A
new misfortune erupted in the North, at Novgorod. Yaroslav, not yet
“the Wise,” as he was later to be known, in the year 1010 having become
ruler of Novgorod, decided to defect from his father the Great Prince of
Kiev. He formed his own separate army, moving on Kiev to demand the
customary tribute and tithe. The unity of the Russian land, for which St
Vladimir had struggled all his life, was threatened with ruin. In both
anger and in sorrow St Vladimir gave orders to “secure the dams and set
the bridges,” and to prepare for a campaign against Novgorod. His powers
were on the decline. In the preparations for his final campaign,
happily not undertaken, the Baptizer of Rus fell grievously ill and
surrendered his soul to the Lord in the village of Spas-Berestov on July
15, 1015. He had ruled the Russian realm for thirty-seven years
(978-1015), twenty-eight of these years after his Baptism.
Preparing
for a new struggle for power and hoping for Polish assistance, and to
play for time, Svyatopolk attempted to conceal the death of his father.
But patriotically inclined Kievan nobles, by night, secretly removed the
body of the deceased sovereign from the Berestov court, where
Svyatopolk’s people were guarding it, and they conveyed the body to
Kiev. At theTithe church the coffin with the relics of St Vladimir was
met by Kievan clergy with Metropolitan John at the head of the
procession. The holy relics were placed in a marble crypt, set within
the St Clement chapel of the Dormition church beside the marble crypt of
Empress Anna.
The name and deeds of the holy Equal of the
Apostles St Vladimir, whom the people called the Splendid Sun, is
interwoven with all the successive history of the Russian Church.
“Through him we too have come to worship and to know Christ, the True
Life,” testified St Hilarion. His deeds were continued by his sons, and
grandsons and descendants, rulers of the Russian land for almost six
centuries, from Yaroslav the Wise, who took the first steps towards the
independent existence of the Russian Church, down to the last of the
Rurikovichi, Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, under whom (in 1589) the Russian
Orthodox Church became the fifth independent Patriarchate in the
dyptichs of Orthodox Autocephalous Churches.
The festal
celebration of the holy Equal of the Apostles Vladimir was established
under St Alexander Nevsky, in memory of the intercession of St Vladimir
on May 15, 1240, for his help in gaining the renowned victory by Nevsky
over Swedish crusaders.
But the first veneration of the holy
prince began in Rus rather earlier. The Metropolitan of Kiev St Hilarion
(+ 1053), in his “Word on Law and Grace,” spoken on the day of memory
of St Vladimir at the saint’s crypt in the Tithe church, calls him “an
apostolic sovereign”, like St Constantine, and he compares his apostolic
evangelisation of the Russian Land to the evangelisation by the holy
Apostles.
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