Vladimir the Great, Vladimir I Sviatoslavich, Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych, Vladimir Veliky. Grandson of Saint Olga of Kiev. Son of the pagan Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kiev and his consort Malushka. Grand prince of Kiev. Prince of Novgorod in 970. Vladimir’s father of the Rurik dynasty and after his death in 972, Vladimir was forced to flee abroad after his brother Yaropolk murdered his other brother Oleg to become the sole ruler of Rus’. Vladimir assembled a Varangian army and, with the help of an uncle, returned to depose Yaropolk in 978. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea, and had solidified the frontiers against Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.
Christianity had made some progress in Kiev, but Vladimir remained pagan, had seven wives, established temples, and participated in idolatrous rites, possibly involving human sacrifice. Around 987, Byzantine Emperor Basil II sought military aid from him. The two reached a pact for aid that involved the giving of Basil’s sister Anne in marriage, and Vladimir becoming a Christian. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one “born in the purple”, married a barbarian. Vladimir was baptized, took the patronal name Basil in compliment to his brother-in-law, and ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod. Idols were thrown into the Dnieper River, and the new Rus Christians adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language. The reason for his choice of the Byzantine rite, is that his envoys were most impressed with their visit to Constantinople, saying, “We knew not whether we were in Heaven or on Earth … We only know that God dwells there among the people, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations.”
Vladimir expanded education, judicial institutions, and aid to the poor. He and Anne had the martyr sons Saint Boris and Saint Gleb. Following the death of Anne in 1011, another marriage affiliated him with the German Holy Roman emperors. His daughter became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland.
Vladimir then formed a great council out of his boyars and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities. During his Christian reign, he lived the teachings of the Bible through acts of charity. He would hand out food and drink to the less fortunate, and made an effort to go out to the people who could not reach him. His work was based on the impulse to help one’s neighbors by sharing the burden of carrying their cross. He founded numerous churches, including the Desyatynna Tserkva (Cathedral of the Tithes), established schools, protected the poor and introduced ecclesiastical courts. He lived mostly at peace with his neighbors, the incursions of the Pechenegs alone disturbing his tranquility.
Vladimir fell ill, most likely of old age, and died at Berestove, near modern-day Kiev on the 15th of July 1015 . The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics.
Patronages: Converts, parents of large families, reformed and penitent murderers, Russia, Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecticut, archeparch of Winnipeg, Manitoba
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