On July 15th we commemorate St. Vladimir the Great, Equal to the Apostles. St. Vladimir was a devout pagan in his early life. He was a great conqueror who had many wives and erected many pagan statues in the lands that he ruled over. Upon finding out that other faiths existed beyond his own paganism, he decided to send his envoys out into the world to find out what was true faith on earth. His envoys met with Muslims, Jews and Catholics, but everything changed, however, when the envoys arrived in Constantinople. Upon attending Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, the envoys said, “We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth.” Taking the word of his envoys, St. Vladimir had himself and his nation baptized into the Orthodox Church. St. Vladimir changed completely after his baptism. He destroyed all the pagan statues that stood in Kievan Rus’, and replaced them with churches. He also attempted to live in peace with his neighbors and had only one wife.
