tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post6699191950211677505..comments2007-11-19T16:24:14.152ZPliablenoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-44951925399693372032007-11-19T16:24:00.000Z2007-11-19T16:24:00.000Z"Orthodoxy was made the official religion of Russia in 988" ...<BR/><BR/>More precisely, Orthodoxy became the official religion of the huge Kievan Rus Empire in 988 C.E. <BR/><BR/>Under Volodymyr the Great (c. 958 –1015), the Kievan Rus Empire embraced Byzantine Christianity. Volodymyr the Great sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring empires whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. <BR/><BR/>He himself was baptised a Christian in Cherson, in today's western Crimea. Upon returning to Kiev [Kyiv], he used his large imperial wealth to build Christian Churches in Kyiv, throughout Kievan Rus, and in Mount Athos. [Volodymyr was of Scandinavian and Slavic ancestry. After the death of his first wife, Anna, the sister of Emperor Basil II of Byzantine; he reportedly married the granddaughter of [Germanic] Otto I the Great, the first Holy Roman Emperor.]<BR/> <BR/>Modern Russia [and Ukraine] came later.Garth Trinklhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.com