Saint Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Grand Prince of Kiev
Grand Prince of Kiev, Equal-to-the-Apostles
- Feast day
- July 15
- Lived
- c. 958–1015
- Patronage
- Converts, rulers, the Slavic Churches
The baptism of Prince Vladimir in 988 and of the people of Kiev in the Dnieper brought the Orthodox faith to the Slavic lands and shaped a thousand years of Christian civilisation.
Life
Vladimir began as a ruthless pagan warlord with many wives and a hilltop of idols. The Primary Chronicle describes his search for a faith: envoys sent to the Muslim Bulgars, the Latins and the Jews returned unimpressed, but those sent to Constantinople reported of the Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, 'we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth.'
He was baptised at Chersonesus in the Crimea in 988, married the Byzantine princess Anna, and returned to Kiev to overthrow the idols and baptise the city. His grandmother Saint Olga had been baptised a generation earlier and had prayed for exactly this.
After the baptism
The chronicles record a change in the man himself: he abolished capital punishment for a time out of fear of sin, fed the poor of Kiev from carts sent through the streets, and founded churches and schools. His sons Boris and Gleb, who refused to take up arms against their brother, became the first canonised saints of Rus.