Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov
On July 24 and 28, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duchess Olga and Grand Duke Vladimir.
The Russian land owes its conversion to Christianity to these two saints. Princess Olga is the first Russian saint. She lived in the 9th–10th centuries. and came from those places that later became the Pskov region.
Her fate was amazing! A simple girl, she was engaged in transportation across the Velikaya River. One day, in the northern forests, where Olga’s village was located, Kiev Prince Igor was hunting. He needed to move to the other side of the river - and he was amazed by the beautiful, noble appearance of the carrier.
And later, when the time came for Igor to get married, he found Olga and took him as his wife. So Olga became a Russian princess.
The son of Igor and Olga, Svyatoslav, was still young when Igor was killed in battle. Instead, Olga began to rule Russia.
At that time, the Slavs worshiped pagan gods. Following pagan laws, Olga cruelly took revenge on Igor’s enemies for his death.
But her conscience told her that revenge was uncalled for.
From Christians who had already appeared in Kyiv, Olga heard that
God commands to forgive enemies and do good to them. She felt the truth of these gospel words and decided to accept Christianity.
For baptism, the princess went to Byzantium. Here she was greeted with great honor. Olga was baptized by the patriarch himself, and the emperor was the godfather.
Returning to Kyiv, Olga immediately began building Christian churches. Tradition says that she built churches in Kyiv, Vitebsk, and Pskov. A miracle was associated with the construction of the church in Pskov. The city of Pskov itself did not exist then.
While in her native place, on the Velikaya River, Olga once saw three bright rays illuminating a place on a steep bank. The princess erected a cross there, founded a temple in the name of the Holy Trinity and predicted that a large city would grow here. Thus, Saint Olga laid the foundation of Pskov.
Olga was a wise ruler. About her, the herald of Christianity in Rus', the chronicle says that she was the first among the Russians to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Olga’s grandson, Grand Duke Vladimir, had the opportunity to baptize Rus'.
At first, Vladimir was a pagan, like his father, Svyatoslav, who did not want to accept Christianity.
But Saint Olga’s childhood education and prayers for him were not in vain. Intense work was going on in the prince’s soul, and over time he became more and more inclined towards Christian truth.
The decisive thing for Vladimir was a conversation with a Greek monk who spoke about life after death and about God’s judgment on people.
Vladimir sent ambassadors to different countries to decide which faith to accept instead of paganism.
The ambassadors who traveled to Constantinople and attended a service in the Church of Sophia the Wisdom of God were amazed by what they saw. “We didn’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth,” they said, being delighted with the divine beauty and significance of the service.
And Vladimir decided to accept Christianity from the Orthodox Greeks.
He was baptized, however, not in Byzantium, but in the Greek city of Korsun -
present Chersonese.
In 988, Vladimir gathered all the people of Kiev on the banks of the Dnieper. The great work of the baptism of Rus' began.
People, many with children in their arms, entered the water; priests on the shore read baptismal prayers, and everyone was given Christian names.
The spiritual birth of a new Russian man took place in the waters of the Dnieper.
After his conversion, Vladimir became completely different: for his kindness, the people nicknamed him “Red Sun”.
He did good to everyone, and made Kyiv the center of Christian faith and culture.
Here you can hear the Greatness of the Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir travel chant and an excerpt from his life. Choir conducted by Boris Tevlin.
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and Princess Olga
On July 24, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, on July 28 - the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and the day of the Baptism of Rus'. The Russian land owes its conversion to Christianity to these two saints.
In the history of the Church of Christ, it is very significant that some of God’s holy chosen ones took part in the spread of the true faith among the pagans. And our Russian land has its own Equal-to-the-Apostles Saint Olga, the grandmother of the Equal-to-the-Apostles enlightener of Rus', Grand Duke Vladimir. Saint Olga was born in the direction where Pskov was later founded. Prince Igor, who loved animal hunting, accidentally met her in the Pskov forests and was so amazed by her wise answers to him and the beauty of her face that he took her as his wife. After Igor's death, Olga ruled the Russian land independently. The people loved and revered her as a mother for her mercy, wisdom and justice. When her son Svyatoslav matured, she transferred control of the state to him in order to more freely engage in charity work for the poor, elderly, and wretched.
Every day it became more and more clear to her that only crazy people could worship soulless idols as gods. Having learned that the faith of Christ came to Russia from the Greeks, wise Olga wished to visit their country herself in order to listen to the most accurate instructions in the faith. She arrived in Constantinople (Constantinople), appeared to Patriarch Polyeuctus and told him of her intention. Olga spent about three months in Constantinople, studying the Christian faith under the guidance of the patriarch himself. Finally, the Lord fulfilled her ardent desire: Olga was enlightened by Holy Baptism and named Helen, in memory of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Queen Helen. Her godfather was the Greek Emperor Constantine himself. The Patriarch performed the Divine Liturgy, during which he communed the newly enlightened Russian princess with the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ. Moreover, he addressed her with the following words: “Blessed are you among Russian women, for you have loved the true Light and rejected darkness! You thereby escaped eternal death and gained immortal life.” Before returning to the fatherland, the patriarch gave her a holy cross with particles of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord as a blessing. Upon arrival in Kyiv, the new Helen, Grand Duchess Olga, began with all zeal to spread the faith of Christ in her native land.
Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir
The future Prince Vladimir was born in 963. Vladimir was raised by his mother's brother, the pagan Dobrynya. In 980, at the height of the war between the brothers, Vladimir went to Kyiv, where his elder brother Yaropolk reigned. Having defeated his brother, Vladimir began to rule in Kyiv. He extended the boundaries of his power from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Bug River in the south. He installed idols on the Kyiv mountains, to which they began to make human sacrifices. Then the Varangians Theodore and John died for Christ. The circumstances of their death made a strong impression on Vladimir, and he began to doubt the truth of the pagan faith.
At the invitation of the prince, preachers from different countries came to Kyiv. The prince asked about their faith, and each offered him theirs. But the strongest impression on him was made by the Greek Orthodox preacher, who at the end of his conversation showed him a picture of the Last Judgment. On the advice of the boyars, Vladimir sent ten wise men to test on the spot whose faith was better. When these Russian ambassadors arrived in Constantinople, the splendor of the St. Sophia Church, the harmonious singing of the court singers and the solemnity of the patriarchal service touched them to the depths of their souls: “We did not know,” they later told Vladimir, “we stood on earth or in heaven.” And the boyars immediately remembered that Olga had chosen the Greek faith.
Vladimir decided to be baptized, but did not want to subjugate Rus' to the Greeks. Therefore, soon after the return of the ambassadors, Vladimir went to war against the Greeks and took Chersonesus. From here he sent ambassadors to the emperors Vasily and Constantine demanding the hand of their sister, Princess Anna. They answered him that the princess could only be the wife of a Christian. Then Vladimir announced that he wanted to accept the Christian faith. But before the bride arrived in Chersonesos, Vladimir was struck by blindness.
In this state, he recognized his spiritual weakness and prepared for the great sacrament of rebirth. Vladimir was baptized (988) and was named Vasily. When leaving the font, he saw with his spiritual and physical eyes and in an abundance of joy exclaimed: “Now I have come to know the true God!”
Christian priests gathered the people and instructed them in the holy faith. Finally, Saint Vladimir announced in Kyiv that all residents should appear on a certain day at the river to be baptized.
On the appointed day, the residents of Kyiv gathered on the banks of the Dnieper. Vladimir himself came here with Christian priests. All the Kievans entered the river, some up to their necks, some up to their chests, adults held babies in their arms, priests on the shore read prayers, and Saint Vladimir prayed to God and entrusted himself and his people to Him.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Nizhny Novgorod was erected on the banks of the Volga and Oka as a strong stronghold of Orthodoxy among the foreigners of the Volga region and central Russia.
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Equal to the Apostles Princess Olga
Memorial Day: July 24
Since ancient times, people in the Russian land have called Saint Olga Equal to the Apostles “the head of the faith” and “the root of Orthodoxy.” Olga’s baptism was marked by the prophetic words of the patriarch who baptized her: “Blessed are you among Russian women, for you have left darkness and loved the Light. The Russian sons will glorify you to the last generation!” At baptism, the Russian princess was honored with the name of Saint Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles, who worked hard to spread Christianity throughout the vast Roman Empire and found the Life-Giving Cross on which the Lord was crucified. Like her heavenly patroness, Olga became an equal-to-the-apostles preacher of Christianity in the vast expanses of the Russian land. There are many chronological inaccuracies and mysteries in the chronicles about her, but there can hardly be any doubt about the reliability of most of the facts of her life, brought to our time by the grateful descendants of the holy princess - the organizer of the Russian land.
Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir
Memorial Day: July 28
Prince Vladimir was the son of Svyatoslav from the Drevlyan princess Malusha. He was born in 963. Vladimir was raised by his mother’s brother, the pagan Dobrynya. In 972, Prince Vladimir began to rule Novgorod. In 980, at the height of the war between the brothers, Vladimir went to Kyiv, where his elder brother Yaropolk reigned. Having defeated his brother, Vladimir began to rule in Kyiv. He conquered Galicia, humbled the Vyatichi, fought with the Pechenegs, and extended the boundaries of his power from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Bug River in the south. He had five wives and numerous concubines. He installed idols on the Kyiv mountains, to which they began to make human sacrifices. Then the Varangians Theodore and John died for Christ. The circumstances of their death made a strong impression on Vladimir, and he began to doubt the truth of the pagan faith. At the invitation of the prince, preachers from different countries came to Kyiv: ambassadors from the Muslim Bulgarians who lived beyond the Volga, Latin Germans, Jews and Greeks. The prince asked about their faith, and everyone offered him their faith. But the strongest impression on him was made by the Greek Orthodox preacher, who at the end of his conversation showed him a picture of the Last Judgment. On the advice of the boyars, Vladimir sent ten wise men to test on the spot whose faith was better. When these Russian ambassadors arrived in Constantinople, the splendor of the St. Sophia Church, the harmonious singing of the court singers and the solemnity of the patriarchal service touched them to the depths of their souls: “We did not know,” they later told Vladimir, “we stood on earth or in heaven.” And the boyars immediately remarked to him: “If the Greek faith had not been better than other faiths, your grandmother Olga, the wisest of people, would not have accepted it.” Vladimir decided to be baptized, but did not want to subjugate Rus' to the Greeks. Therefore, soon after the return of the ambassadors, Vladimir went to war against the Greeks and took Chersonesus. From here he sent ambassadors to Constantinople to the emperors Vasily and Constantine demanding the hand of their sister, Princess Anna. They answered him that the princess could only be the wife of a Christian. Then Vladimir announced that he wanted to accept the Christian faith. But before the bride arrived in Chersonesos, Vladimir was struck by blindness. In this state, like the Apostle Paul, he recognized his spiritual weakness and prepared for the great mystery of rebirth. The princess, who arrived in Chersonesos, advised him to hasten with baptism. Vladimir was baptized (988) and was named Vasily. When leaving the font, he saw with his spiritual and physical eyes and in an abundance of joy exclaimed: “Now I know the true God!” />
Troparion of Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, voice 4
You became like a merchant looking for good beads, / glorious Vladimir, / sitting at the height of the table, the mother of the cities, / God-saved Kiev: / testing and sending to the Royal City / to lead away the Orthodox faith, / you found a priceless bead - Christ, / who chose you, as the second Paul,/ and shook off blindness in the holy font,/ both spiritual and physical./ In the same way, we celebrate your dormition,/ your people,// pray for the salvation of your Russian power, the ruler and the multitude of those who rule.
Kontakion of Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, voice 8
Having resembled the great Apostle Paul, in gray hairs, the all-glorious Vladimir, / all like a child’s wisdom, even care for idols, you left, / like a perfect man, you were adorned with the scarlet robe of Divine Baptism, / and now, standing before the Savior Christ in joy, / pray for the salvation of the powers Russian boss and many owners.
Greatness
We magnify you,/ holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir,/ and honor your holy memory,/ who trampled down idols// and enlightened the entire Russian land with holy Baptism.
SAINTS VLADIMIR AND OLGA
The Grand Duchess Olga of Russia was said to have a masculine mind. This was a compliment in the mouths of contemporaries and descendants. Left a widow, Olga dealt with her husband’s enemies, the Drevlyans, with amazing creativity and cruelty. Just look at her “merciful” refusal of tribute from the Drevlyans! She asked them only for a pair of pigeons from each yard. And having received it, she ordered to tie tow to them, set them on fire and let them go. The birds, of course, flew home. And the city burned to the ground! But then the time came for reflection and re-evaluation. The Grand Duchess went to Constantinople and was baptized with the name Elena, in honor of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Queen. Olga herself became an equal of the apostles. She was unable to bring her son Svyatoslav to Christ. But she sowed the seeds of faith in the heart of her grandson Vladimir. Many of us are going through similar situations now. We found faith in adulthood. But our children don’t want to hear about it. Grand Duke Vladimir was called the Red Sun during his lifetime. But this sun did not immediately shine through the pagan darkness. Vladimir was a warrior, a worthy grandson of Olga and the son of his father. An ancient chronicle tells how the prince conquered the ancient city of Polotsk. The ruler of the city did not want to give his daughter in marriage to Vladimir. And Rogneda herself did not want to marry the “son of a slave.” The prince ordered two stakes to be driven into the square, tied the girl’s father and mother to them - and in front of them “committed lewdness to her.” Such is the character! But Vladimir did not want and could not remain a pagan. This was against his seeking, sincere nature. And, of course, he had already chosen Christianity when he sent ambassadors to different countries and ordered them to get acquainted with the beliefs of other peoples. The prince expected the ambassadors to be convinced of the truth and beauty of Orthodoxy. And so it happened. And then he began to ask the Greek kings (there were two brothers on the throne at that time) to give up their sister Anna for him. The brothers set one condition: “It is not right for a Christian to marry a barbarian.” If you accept our faith, we will give your sister for you. This suited Vladimir. He was waiting for his bride in Korsun (the ruins of the city are located near Sevastopol). And she sailed there on a ship - with prayer, with tears, accompanied by the priesthood and dignitaries. The only thing that consoled the princess was that through her God would bring the unenlightened Russians to Himself. And the prince became seriously ill and became blind. Anna advised him: -Be baptized quickly! He emerged from the baptismal font with his sight restored and completely healed. This miracle had such an effect on him that the seeds of faith gave powerful growth. With his young wife, priests, and clerks, Vladimir arrived in Kiev and addressed the people: “May the rich and the poor, the free and the slave, the male and female sexes, the old and the young, the maidens and the youth, the elders with children, be on the Pochayna River in the morning.” , but also beggars - and if I don’t meet anyone there, he will be my personal enemy. It would seem like terrible violence! Be baptized so as not to become the personal enemy of the Grand Duke? But people went to the Pochayna River with joy, saying: “If this had not been a good deed, the prince would not have accepted it!” Vladimir built churches, opened schools where future priests studied. He fed the poor and sick. I even tried to abolish the death penalty, but then I realized that this cannot be done. And he continued to protect his subjects from dashing people. Vladimir ruled Christian Russia for 28 years. After the death of the Grand Duke, his sons Boris and Gleb became the first canonized Russian passion-bearing saints. This is the main confirmation of their father's sincerity. But Grand Duke Vladimir became our father for all time. He did the most important thing for us - he revealed the meaning and truth of life. For this we are grateful to him and his great grandmother, Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. July 24 - memory of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga July 28 - memory of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir August 14 - day of the Baptism of Rus'
