A. N. Mouravieff
Introduction of Christianity into Russia (A.D. 988-1015)
Conversion of Vladimir the Great

Part of Constantinoupolis on the web section of Elpenor's history resources

Page 3

    It is probable that on their return to their own country the princes of Kieff sowed there the seeds of Christianity; for, eighty years afterward, on occasion of a conference for peace between the prince Igor and certain Byzantine ambassadors, we find mention already of a "Church of the Prophet Elias" in Kieff where the Christian Varangians swore to the observance of the treaty. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and other Greek annalists even relate that in the lifetime of Oskold there was a bishop sent to the Russians by the emperor Basil the Macedonian, and the patriarch St. Ignatius, and that he made many converts, chiefly "in consequence of the miraculous preservation of a volume of the Gospels, which was thrown publicly into the flames and taken out after some time unconsumed." Also in Condinus, Catalogue of Sees Subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the metropolitical see of Russia appears as early as the year 891.

    Lastly, it is certain that many of the Varangians who served in the imperial bodyguard were Christians, and that the Greek sovereigns never lost sight of any opportunity of converting them to their own faith, by which they hoped to soften their savage manners. When the emperor Leo was concluding a peace with Oleg, he showed not only his own treasures to the ambassadors of the Russian prince, but also the splendor of the churches, the holy relics, the precious icons, and the "Instruments of the Passion of our Lord," if by any means they might catch from them the spirit of the faith.

 

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     Cf. Al. Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire * Pavle of Serbia, 550 years since the Fall of Constantinople * Constantelos, Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day * Dostoyefsky, Constantinople can not but belong to Russia! * Meyendorff, Christ as Word Gospel and Culture * George Majeska, Russian Pilgrims in Constantinople (pdf) * Pan. Christou, The Missionary Task of the Byzantine Emperor  * Toynbee, Christianity and Civilization * Gogol, We recognise in them the divine origin of man * Saint Silouan the Athonite * Papacy : The Plague of Christianity  * The Orthodox Church

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