St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Grand Prince of Kiev, a pagan who by the chronicle’s own account had set up new idols, killed a brother and kept hundreds of concubines, and who sent envoys to examine the faiths and was told of the Great Church at Constantinople that they did not know whether they were in heaven or on earth. He was baptised at Cherson in 988, married the emperor’s sister Anna, and had the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper. The chronicle notices the change in the man: he fed the poor from his own table, and hesitated to execute even robbers, for fear of sin. He founded schools and churches and died in 1015. Feast: July 15.