St. Vladimir

St. Vladimir was born about 958, a grandson of St. Olga, and became grand prince of Kiev, ruler of the land of the Rus'. In his early years he was a fierce and pagan warrior, given to violence and many wives, who raised idols in his capital. Yet he came to seek a faith for his people, and the old chronicle relates that he sent emissaries to observe the religions of his neighbors; returning from the Divine Liturgy in the great church of Constantinople, they reported that they "knew not whether they were in heaven or on earth," so beautiful was the worship.

About the year 988 Vladimir was baptized and married a Byzantine princess, and he led his people into the Christian faith, by tradition ordering the mass baptism of the citizens of Kiev in the Dnieper River. His conversion transformed him: he cast down the idols, built churches, cared for the poor, and is said to have shrunk even from executing criminals. His embrace of Byzantine Christianity shaped the faith and culture of the Eastern Slavs for a thousand years. Honored as "Equal to the Apostles," he died in 1015, his memory kept on 15 July.