Nearly two thousand years ago,
St. Andrew the Apostle stood near the site where Kyiv, the capital
of Ukraine, now lies and said: "Do you see these hills? The favour
of God shall shine upon them and at this place a great city shall
be built, and by God's will, many churches shall be built within
it."
It was a thousand years later,
in 988, that Kyivan Prince Volodymyr the Great accepted Christianity
as the official religion of his realm. This was the deliberate act
of a monarch setting a new historical course for his kingdom. It
was an extraordinary event in the history of world culture.
In choosing Christianity for
himself and for his people, Volodymyr turned towards the culture
of Byzantium. The Byzantine empire of the ninth and tenth centuries
was the leading state in the medieval world. It served as a model
of culture, standard of living, and statecraft. It had attained
the status to which Kyivan Rus' aspired.
Volodymyr was raised in an environment
which was conducive to his eventual adoption of Christianity. His
grandmother, the Regent OIha, was Christian. In addition, the grandeur
of Eastern (Byzantine) religious rituals was attractive to his people.
A delegation from Constantinople had brought Volodymyr enthusiastic
reports about the Cathedral of Saint Sofia. It is thus related in
the Tale of Bygone Years: "When we came to the Greeks and they led
us to the place where they worship their God, we did not know if
we were in heaven or on earth. Such beauty and splendour is unknown
on this earth... Surely God himself dwells among them, and their
service is more beautiful than the service of other nations."
The adoption of Christianity
was of enormous significance for the history of Rus'-Ukraine. It
accelerated the purging of many remnants of the old tribal order,
including polygamy, slavery, blood feuds, and other pagan customs.
It played an important role as a state ideology since the Church
ascribed all of the attributes of a Christian emperor to the Grand
Prince of Rus'. It resulted in great strides in the field of education.
Attempts to organize schools date from the time of Volodymyr. In
addition, with Christianity Kyivan Rus' joined Slavic literary culture.
The writing of books became widespread, and religious texts were
translated from the Greek into the Slavonic language. Literacy gradually
spread to the entire society.
|
St.
Sofia Cathedral
|
 |
Christianity also had a significant
impact on the cultural development of Rus'-Ukraine. It inspired
great master-pieces of painting and architecture which have survived
even to our times. The magnificent cathedral of St. Sofia in Kyiv
was built by Volodymyr's son, Yaroslav the Wise, between 1019 and
1037. More than a century older than Notre Dame in Paris, this church
has an extraordinary collection of frescoes and mosaics which rival
even those of Ravenna in Italy. These make it one of the world's
architectural and artistic treasures.
With the influence of Christianity,
Kyiv and the Kyivan empire assumed a position of cultural equality
with the nations of Western Europe, and this facilitated the establishment
of valuable relationships with these states. Political and cultural
ties with the Byzantine Empire and with European nations such as
France, England, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Hungary and Germany were
strengthened through marriages with the Kyivan royal family. Volodymyr's
daughter Predslava was courted by the Polish king Boleslav, and
his son Yaroslav married a Swedish princess. Yaroslav's three daughters
became the queens of Hungary, Norway and France, while his son married
the sister of the Polish king. Yaroslav's grandson married the king
of England's daughter. His granddaughter married Heinrich IV, King
of Germany and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Such liaisons would
have been impossible had Kyiv remained pagan.
The acceptance of Christianity
had profound effects on the technological development of Kyivan
Rus'. Agriculture, construction engineering, stonecutting, mosaic,
fresco painting and the minting of coinage - all of these skills
were brought from Byzantium.
 |
| Silver coin of King Volodymyr.
This is the reverse side showing his royal trident design. The
sie of the original is about the size of a dime. |
|
