FACTBOX - Russia's Baptism Day

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2019) Orthodox Christians celebrate on July 28 the 1031st anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, a medieval state that comprised parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Russia's Baptism Day was established by Federal law on June 1, 2010.

In the Orthodox Church Calendar, this date is the feast day of St. Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal of the Apostles, the Baptizer of Rus. In 988, the ancient Rus under his rule adopted Christianity. Since then Prince Vladimir was given the title "Great" by the state, sainthood by the Church, and the epithet "Red Sun" by the people.�

In June 2008, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to conduct divine services on July 28, the day of St. Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal of the Apostles.

Prince Vladimir was the grandson of Saint Olga of Kiev and the son of Grand Prince of Kiev Sviatoslav the Brave and his servant Malusha, who became a Christian together with Princess Olga in Constantinople. Vladimir took power when he was 17 years old and spent the first six years of his rule crusading. According to legend, during these years, the prince was a pagan and loved feasts.

According to the Primary Chronicle, in 986, emissaries from civilizations with differing faiths started traveling to Kiev to see Vladimir and trying to convince the ruler to convert to their religions: the Muslim faith, Latin faith, Judaism and Orthodoxy.

In order to understand which faith is better, Prince Vladimir also sent out his own envoys to visit each of the nine nations from which the emissaries had come, asking them to describe the religious customs and rituals of these countries.

They visited the Muslim mosque of the Bulgarians and the Catholic Germans, but the patriarchal service in Constantinople impressed them the most.

In 987, after consultations with boyars, Prince Vladimir decided to baptize Rus "according to Greek law."

However, he did not immediately convert to Christianity. In 988, he captured Korsun (which is now a part of the city of Sevastopol) and demanded to marry Princess Anna, daughter of Byzantine Emperor Romanos II and Empress Theophano, threatening to move on to Constantinople otherwise. His marriage to Princess Anna resulted first in his baptism, and then in the mass baptism of the residents of Kiev. There is a legend that the prince went blind in Korsun, but he was healed immediately after baptism.

"I have now perceived the one true God," he said.

After marrying Princess Anna, Vladimir let go of all his wives and concubines.

After Kiev, Christianity gradually came to other cities of Rus such as Chernihiv, Volynsky, Polotsk, and Turov. The baptism of Rus took several centuries: in 1024, Yaroslav the Wise suppressed the peasant revolt; Rostov was baptized only at the end of the 11th century; while in Murom, the resistance of the pagans to the new faith continued until the 12th century.

The Vyatichi longer than other Slavic tribes preserved pagan beliefs. They got baptized only in the second half of the 12th century.

The adoption of the new, unifying faith became a serious impetus for the unification of Russian lands. Christianization allowed Russia to make the civilizational choice, find its place between Europe and Asia, and become the strongest Eurasian power.