VLADIMIR the GREAT, saint. — Son of the Norman-Russian prince Sviatoslav and of Malfreda, a woman in the retinue of his wife, he was brought up as a pagan, as was also his father, in opposition to his brother Iaropolk; he died in 1015.
After the death of the latter (972), which occurred in Bulgaria during a war, V. was forced to flee from Novgorod, where he was staying with his uncle Dobrynia, to Sweden. Returning to his native land, he defeated his brother Iaropolk and established himself at Kiev. For a long time he lived as a pagan: he had several wives, some of whom were Christian, and he worshipped his gods even with human sacrifices. By waging war against the Bohemians and the Byzantines he became very famous. The Byzantine emperors Basil I and Constantine VIII therefore sought his help when they found themselves facing a rebellion raised against them by some generals. V. ANNAM. Seeing no other way out, the two emperors agreed on condition that he become a Christian. After some displays of piety and after V.’s energetic action against the city of Cherson, the marriage was celebrated, and V. was baptized, taking the name Basil. Returning to Kiev, the new Christian caused the entire population of his kingdom to be baptized and the Byzantine rite in Slavonic was adopted for the liturgy. Of the new Church only the names of one or two bishops are known. Probably V. wished to remain free from any subjection, even merely ecclesiastical, to the Byzantine authorities. He also kept himself free from the political-religious influence of the German Empire of Otto. With the popes he maintained the normal relations that were customary at that time for a prince of his standing; he exchanged embassies with them and acknowledged those whom his Byzantine brothers-in-law acknowledged. He built at Kiev a church in honour of the Madonna, leaving its cult in certain cities to his people.
V. was certainly one of the most important figures in the history of the lands that today form the Ukrainian Republic. He belongs to it for geographical reasons, and for dynastic reasons as the founder of the family that for centuries reigned there. But above all he belongs to all the lands where Eastern Slavs dwell as the prince who brought them Christianity in union with the Roman See.