On this day the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy celebrate the feast of St. Vladimir the Great. He was born about 958, ascended the throne of Kiev in 980 and died on July 15, 1015. Born a Slavic-Viking pagan, The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, after consultation with his boyars, Vladimir the Great sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths:
The envoys reported: "When we journeyed among the [Muslims], we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The [Muslim] bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is not good.
Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there.
Then we went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man, after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here." Then the vassals spoke and said, "If the Greek faith were evil, it would not have been adopted by your grandmother Olga, who was wiser than all other men." Vladimir then inquired where they should all accept baptism, and they replied that the decision rested with him.
Being a pagan Viking, he held off and attacked the ancient Greek city of Kherson (Crimea) and besieged it and asking for a ransom from the Emperor in Constantinople and his sister in marriage. While besieging the city Vladimir went blind. Princess Anna, already promised to him as a bride is recorded as saying to the still pagan Vladimir: "Through your agency God turns the Russian land to repentance, and you will relieve Greece from the danger of grievous war. Do you not see how much evil the Russians have already brought upon the Greeks? If you do not set out, they may bring on us the same misfortunes."
A still blind Vladimir was baptized in the Church of St. Basil, which stands at Kherson upon a square in the center of the city (which is still there) and as he emerged from the baptismal waters his eyesight was restored.
What follows is probably the largest mass baptism ever recorded. Vladimir, ordered all his people to go by the river to be baptised and the rest is Russian history.
If you are not religious - knowing this is still important since Putin just re-declared Crimea as the Russian Jerusalem and planted a few nukes on the peninsula and dares all comers to come take the land away from Russia.
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