The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-25
THE NINTH CENTENARY OF CHRIS
TIANITY IN RUSSIA.

on his return from the KhersOnese OF
Tauris, where he had accepted Chris
tianity, Prince Vladimir ordered that
all the residents of his capital city of
Kieff, should appear on the shore Of
the Dnieper and be baptized by Byzan-
tian clergymen. This order was duly
obeyed, ard thus paganism, in the form
OF poly5heism, was replaced in Russia
by Christianity according to the teach
ings Of the Greek Eastern church,
Since then that church has been the
established church Of Russia. How
ever, according to reliable historic data,
Christianity was introduced in Kieff at
least a century before the public bap-
tism under Vladimir Thus under Leo
VI, among the Greek Eastern di0ceses
was mentioned that Of Russia. And
indeed, Askold and Dir, who ruled in
Kietf in about $50, were Christians,
and so was Princess Olga who died in
969. In OIL, in Kteff. there was built
a church dedicated to St. Elias There
fore Russians might celebrate to-day
as well the millennium Of Christianity in
their country.
La compliance with the order of the
Holy Synod OF Russia, issued some time
ago in all the cathedrals, churches and
chapeIa OF Chat country, counting about
sixty thousand, last Friday there was
performed a solemn liturgy and a
special thanksgiving service in which
the Orthodox people, over sixty million
strong, thanked God for saving their
country, through st. Prince Vladimir.
the Isapostol0s, from the darkness OF
idOlatry and for shedding on il . light
of the true faith, - After these ser
vices the clergy, counting over a nun
dred thousand, led their parishioners
respectively to rivers, lakes, springs
and wells, where the service of conse-
Grafton of water was performed. On
this occasion there zaae formed grand
religious professions perhaps never wit
messed in any land Of Christendom,
resplendent holy and the 50 called
miraculous images, glittering crosses,
costly banners of golden br0cade, and
the books in jeWeled bindings were car
ried in every town and village Of the
empire, followed by the clergy, the
monks and the nuns, the religious
brOtherhoods, Che pupils of every kind,
civilian authorities, the parishioners
and the military regiments in full uni
form, while all the church bells We're
ringing. 1t was indeed a great aud
grand religious jubilee.
In Kieff, "'the baptismal font of the
country the services and the process
sion were to be still more solemn than
elsewhere. There the Orthodox people
may go over the history Of Christianity
in their country for thousand years,
beginning from the Grave of Askold,
now the church of st, Nicholas, and
ending with the Cathedral of st. Prince
Vladimir, just finished,
The Christian Russia has well de-
served before the Christendom. Sit
uated between Western Europe on one
side and Asia on the other, she was
destined to defend the Christian civili-
zatiOn against the pagan and the Mo
hammedan hordes which for long cen
tuTies have furiously pressed westward.
During this struggle, centuries long,
Russia has been several times prOstrat-
ed; but each time she rose again, being
animated with the same faith and
patriotism, and again she kept on
defending her sacred bulwark. Those
pages of Russian history which record
ed the struggle of the Holy Russia
against the pagan Tartars and the Mo
hammedan Turks, are certainly the
most memorable. Russia, single-hand-
ed, won the honor of erecting the Cross
over the Crescent.
But while giving full justice to Holy
Russia, one cannot ignore her dark
deeds, too. When in the seventeenth
century, the Raskol, or schism, took
place in the Orthodox fold Of Russia,
the church authorities instituted
persecution almost equalliug the one
pursued under the auspices OF Roman
Catholic Inquisition. Textures. gib0et.
Imprisonment for life, OF exile to
Siberia ot to the Caucasus were freely
resoIted TO against those who refused
to pray according to the newly trans
lated books, Oh who protested against
the Capitalization of the religious au-
thority in one person. And even to-
day over fifteen millions of Raskolniks
are deprived Of many civil rights solely
because they dare to hold a different
opinion from that Of the established
church, on some Insignificant rites.
A strange condition of double belief
has been developed under the pressure
of a law forbidding the Orthodox sub
iects of the Car to ever change their