Vladimir
came to the Throne of Russia in the year 980. His grandmother Olga had been a
Convert to the Greek Church, but Vladimir was a savage Heathen, persecuting
the Christians in his dominions, and occasionally putting them to death to
propitiate his god Perun. The policy of the Ruler of all the Russias was, even
in those days, of great importance to his neighbours; and the story goes that
each of them despatched a mission to endeavour to convert him from his fierce
heathen ways, and lead him to the Truth, as each conceived it. Vladimir seems
to have possessed an unusually unprejudiced mind, for he listened to them all
in turn to see how he liked their doctrine.
First
came the Bulgarian Mussalmans of the Volga, who bade him give up eating pork
and drinking wine, and promised him after death a Paradise of sensual
delights. 'That last,' said the Prince, 'might be well, but all Russians love
drink, and that Religion will not do for us.'
Then
came representatives from the Pope of Rome. ' We,' they said, 'fear GOD Who
made all things; we fast; and whether we eat or drink we do it to GOD'S
glory.'
But
the Russian would not learn of the Western Patriarch. 'Our fathers knew not
this Faith: the Pope did not teach them,' he said, and gave the next chance to
the Jews.
'We
have crucified the GOD of the Christians, and destroyed His power,' they said;
and then they set before him the requirements of the Mosaic Law. He listened
to it all; but, when he heard that they had now no country, and were scattered
over the face of the earth, he mocked them, and said that manifestly they were
out of favour with their GOD.
Then
came to him from Greece a Monk, 'esteemed a Philosopher,' who explained to him
the difference between the Eastern and Western Churches, and taught him the
history of the Christian Faith. Then he held up before him a picture of the
Last Judgement, and Vladimir looked at it and trembled. 'Yet,' said he, like
English Ethelbert, 'I will wait.'
And
then, through the long dull winter, he turned over the new thoughts that had
been put into his mind; and, in the spring, he sent for his Nobles, and asked
them what he should do.
'Send
Envoys,' said the Nobles, 'to see the working of these different Religions in
their own countries, since each will see no faults in his own.'
Vladimir
approved of this notion, and sent an Embassy to study the Faiths of thc World.
They found none to their mind, until they came to Constantinople, where Basil
Porphyrogenitus sat beside Constantine on the Imperial Throne.
The
inquiring Russians were taken to the great Church of the Eternal Wisdom, and
all the splendour and glory of which the Eastern Church was capable was
unrolled before their startled and unaccustomed eyes. The Church of the
Eternal Wisdom - magnificent even now, in its state of white wash and decay
- then shone resplendent with mosaics and gold. Incense, music, colour, and
light, dazzled and delighted them; and at last out of the Sanctuary came a
white-robed throng of Deacons and Sub-Deacons, chanting 'HOLY, HOLY, HOLY,'
their long sleeves fluttering in the air like wings, their voices Heavenly and
strange. 'Oh, this,' cried the Russian Envoys, 'this is beyond nature. All the
rest is wonderful; this is Divine.' 'Do ye not know,' said the Greeks, 'that
Angels mingle in our services and sing the" THRICE HOLY" with us ? '
And
so, with bewildered senses, but surely none the less with enlightened hearts,
the Envoys went back and told Vladimir that they had found The Faith. Then a
strange thing happened. Who can trace the workings of the mind of this great
barbarian, in whom the principle of growth must have been so strong, the
yearning after Light so powerful, and yet who knew so little what it was he
sought? It seemed to him that he must carry off this new Faith by force from
its possessors; perhaps - who knows ? - he thought he could seize the very GOD
they worshipped from this other nation, and bring HIM back, to be the GOD of
the Russians instead.
Vladimir
broke, sword in hand, upon the Eastern Empire; took, with the help of a
treacherous Monk, the city of Cherson, in Tauris, and then threatened Constantinople
itself, unless the Emperor would give him his sister Anna in marriage, on
which condition he promised to be baptized, and all his nation with him. The
Princess conquered her dread of a barbarian lord, to save her country and to
spread the Faith, and, with a large body of Clergy, sailed for Cherson, where
Vladimir was baptized and married; an affection of the eyes, from which he
suffered, disappearing, we are told, at the touch of the Bishop's hands, after
he rose from the Laver of Regeneration.
Then
many of his Nobles followed his example, and, with his wife and. the Greek
Clergy, he returned to Kieff, with Church furniture and sacred vessels, and
everything prepared for the new Cathedral that was soon founded there.
Then
we read that Vladimir's twelve sons were baptized; and that, after the manner
of his day, he proceeded to convert his people. He dragged the wooden image of
his god Perun at the tails of horses, and scourged it, and flung it into the
Dnieper, before the eyes of its terrified worshippers. But, when no
judgement followed, the people regarded it with contempt, and came to be
baptized in obedience to their King's mandate. ' He who resists is my enemy,'
said Vladimir.
And
baptized they were in the river by whole companies, the Priests nammg hundreds
by the same name, and reading the prayers on the shore. Then Vladimir broke
out in a transport of prayer - 'O, Great GOD, Who has made Heaven and earth,
look down upon these Thy new people. Grant them, O LORD, to know THEE, the
true GOD, as THOU hast been made known to Christian lands, and confirm in them
a true and unfailing faith; and assist me, O LORD, against my enemy that
opposes me, that, trusting in THEE, and by Thy Power, I may overcome all his
wiles.'
That
prayer was heard. Vladimir went on building Churches, destroying idols,
converting his people, founding and spreading the Church of CHRIST. In 996
Russia had five Dioceses, and, before the death of Vladimir in 1015, the rough
outlines of the great work were accomplished. And besides, Vladimir obtained
far more than he knew how to desire, though, when we consider how earnestly he
followed what light he had, we cannot think it more than he deserved. He
obtained the grace to practise every Christian virtue, and 'the contrast
between his cruelty and vices as a heathen, and the mildness of his
disposition and the purity of his morals after his conversion,' is fondly
commented on by the Russian annalists, from whom he has
received the honourable title of 'Equal-to-an-Apostle.'
He
was buried in the church at Kieff, which he himself had founded, beside his
wife Anna, for whose sake he had abandoned six Pagan wives and an incredible
number of concubines.
So,
in the Providence of GOD, through violence and treachery and fraud, and with
grotesque and strange imaginations, that Principle was brought to the Russian
Empire, which softens violence, and straightens out teaching, and scorns the
aid of falsehood, and clears and raises the inward thoughts of all who come to
accept it. For GOD fulfils HIMSELF in many ways, and sends His Apostles - each
in his own time, and after his own kind, to do the work for which he only is
fitted.
But,
what that work really is and will be, the very doer of it does not know, for
it has not entered into his heart to conceive it. He has only to do it, as did
Vladimir, King of the Ancient Russians. - Christabel Coleridge.
