VLADIMIRO the GREAT, saint. — Son of the Norman-Russian prince Snjatoslaw and of Malfreda, a woman in the retinue of his wife, he was brought up as a pagan, like his father, in opposition to his brother Jaropolk; d. in 1015.
After the death of the latter (972), which occurred in Bulgaria during a war, V. was forced to flee from Nowgorod, where he was staying with his uncle Dobrynia, to Scandinavia. Having returned to his native country, he defeated his brother Jaropolk and settled in Kiev. For a long time he lived as a pagan: he had several wives, among them some who were Christian, and he venerated his gods even with human sacrifices. Warring against the Bohemians and the Byzantines, he became very famous. Therefore the Byzantine emperors Basilio II and Costantino VIII sought his help when they found themselves facing an insurrection that certain generals had raised against them. V. demanded the hand of their sister Anna as his reward. Seeing no way out, the two emperors consented on condition that he become a Christian. After some hesitation on the part of the Emperors and following an energetic action by V. against the city of Cherson, the marriage was celebrated, and V. Christian, taking the name of Basilio. Having returned to Kiev, the newly converted Christian had the entire population of his Kingdom baptized, and the Byzantine rite in the Slavonic language was adopted for the liturgy. Of the new Church, scarcely the names of one or two bishops are known. V. probably wished to remain free from subjection, even merely ecclesiastical, to the Byzantine authorities. He also kept himself free from the politico-religious influence of the German Empire of Ottone. With the popes he maintained the normal relations that were customary at that time for a prince of his standing; he exchanged legations with them and recognized those whom his Byzantine brothers-in-law recognized. He built a church in Kiev in honor of the Madonna, whose veneration he bequeathed to his people.
V. Republic. He belongs to it for geographical reasons, and for dynastic reasons as the progenitor of the family that ruled there for centuries. But above all he belongs to all the lands inhabited by Eastern Slavs, as the prince who brought Christianity to them in union with the Roman See.