into Slavonic were subsequently adopted, and their practice of celebrating the service in a language familiar to the people was followed.
In 955 Olga, wife of Igur, ruler of Kiev, mother of Sviatoslav, and whom Nestor calls "the dawn and morning-star of salvation for Russia," journeyed to Constantinople in search of knowledge of the true God, and was there baptized by the name of Helena, in memory of the sainted mother of Constantine the Great. The humble creed and self-denying precepts of her new religion were repugnant to the rude barbarian, her son, a proud and haughty chief of fierce warriors; but he respected the genius and virtues of his mother, who, venerated and loved by his people, was surnamed by them "the Wise." He tolerated and protected the belief she professed, and confided his children to her care. His son, Vladimir, was a kindred spirit to his own—enterprising and ambitious, of fiery passions, strong and enthusiastic temperament, imbued with the superstitions and addicted to the gross and sensual indulgences of his race, fit leader of hardy and rapacious tribes, whose only occupation was war, and whose pastimes were revelry and the chase. A zealous worshipper of idols, Vladimir erected a huge image of Peroun, the God of Thunder, and offered to it human sacrifices. To celebrate a victory over a neighboring tribe, lots were cast for a victim, and fell on Feodor, son of Ivan, a Christian Varagian; the father refused to yield him up, mocked the heathen deities of wood and stone, and declared the God of the Greeks to be the true and only God; whereon the people massacred them both—the first and the only martyrs of the Church at Kiev. Vladimir's success in war spread his renown abroad; his alliance was courted, and his conversion became an object of solicitude to nations near
