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The Alleged Apostolic Roots of Christianity in the Kievan Rus’*

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The Alleged Apostolic Roots of Christianity in the Kievan Rus’* Christian Myths of Origin among the East Slavs: The alleged Apostolic Roots of Christianity in the Kievan Rus’* Enrique Santos Marinas University Complutense of Madrid 1. Introduction Since the baptism of prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988, the East Slavic authorities tried to prove that the Christian roots of their successive states went back much earlier than the official date. With this aim, the sources that have come down to us show different attempts to link the alleged old Christian vocation of the Kievan Rus’ to several apostolic characters. This is the case of the Sermon on Law and Grace of Metropolitan Ilarion (ca. 1050) and the Primary Chronicle, known as Povest’ Vremennykh Let “Tale of Bygone Years”, the oldest East Slavic chronicle compiled at the beginning of the 12th c. from earlier materials. Afterwards, already in modern times during the reign of tsar Ivan IV “the Terrible” in the 16th c. some of those legends were taken again in order to support the imperial and messianic ideology of Moscow as the third Rome, as it is attested in the Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy. In this paper we will offer a review of the Christian myths regarding the apostolicity of the different East Slavic states since the Kievan Rus’ until the Muscovite Tsardom, showing how they changed in every historical period as well as the ideological use that was made of them with different political and religious purposes. 2. The idea of apostolicity in the Sermon on Law and Grace of Metropolitan Ilarion Metropolitan Ilarion is one of the most important literary figures of the Kievan Rus’. However, we don’t know much about his life. In the Primary Chronicle it is said that he was named metropolitan by prince Jaroslav the Wise1 in 1051, that he was of Rusyn2 origin and that he had been one of the many priests of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Berestovo3, as well as a monk and ascetic in a cave (Franklin, 1991: xvi-xvii). The fact that he was a native metropolitan was uncommon, the same as the way of being appointed by prince Jaroslav and the local bishops, instead of being a Greek named by the patriarch of Constantinople, as it was always during the period of the Kievan Rus’, with the only exceptions of Ilarion and Klim Smoljatič a century later. That’s why it has been interpreted by many scholars as a defiance of Byzantium by the Kievan prince. Ilarion’s masterpiece, his Sermon on Law and Grace, was written before he became metropolitan, most likely between 1047-1050 (Franklin, 1991: xix-xxi; Butler, 2002: 6- 7), and it has been preserved only in late copies that date to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Butler, 2002: 4-5). The Sermon has been divided into four constituent parts that correspond to the different elements mentioned in its title: * This paper is a result of the research project “La reconstrucción de la religión eslava precristiana. Los testimonios textuales y comparativos” FFI2010-16220 funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and directed by professor J. A. Álvarez-Pedrosa Núñez. 1 Ruler of Kiev from 1019 to 1054. 2 East Slavic ethnic and linguistic group who inhabited the territory of the Kievan Rus’ (the area that is now Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia). 3 Princely residence close to Kiev. Concerning the Law Given by Moses and the Grace and Truth Which Came by Jesus Christ, and How the Law Departed and Grace and Truth Filled All the Earth and Faith Spread Forth to All Nations Even unto Our Nation of Rus’, and an Encomium to Our Kagan4 Volodimer by Whom We Became Baptized, and a Prayer to God from All Our Land (Franklin, 1991: xxvii). Its third part is then an Encomium devoted to prince “Volodimer” (Vladimir), the father of Jaroslav, who introduced the Christian faith in the Russian lands. Not by chance, this Encomium starts with a paragraph that is related to the idea of apostolicity. It says as follows: (42) Rome, with the voices of praise, praises Peter and Paul, for through Peter and Paul Rome came to believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God. Asia and Ephesus and Patmos praise John the Theologian. India praises Thomas, Egypt praises Mark: every land and every city and every nation honors and glorifies its teacher that taught it the Orthodox faith. We too, therefore, let us praise to the best of our strength, with our humble praises, him whose deeds were wondrous and great, our teacher and guide, the great kagan of our land, Volodimer, the grandson of Igor’ of old, and the son of the glorious Svjatoslav. When these reigned in their time, their renown spread abroad for their courage and valor; and still they are remembered, renowned even now for their victories and might. For they ruled not some feeble, obscure, unknown land, but in this land of Rus’, which is known and renowned to the ends of the earth (Franklin, 1991: 17). Like this, prince Vladimir is compared to the Apostles of the different nations, calling him “teacher and guide”, the titles that received both the biblical Apostles and Constantine-Cyril and his brother Method, the “Apostles of the Slavs”. According to Butler (2002: 10), Ilarion attempts to integrate two very diferent aspects of the prince’s image, shifting from an international to a national focus, and moving from the holy men of other lands to Vladimir’s pagan ancestors, the rulers of the great land of Rus’. This way, Rus’ is depicted “both as a part of a larger ecumenical whole and as a powerful and respected independent unit” (ibid.). In the following paragraphs the baptism of Vladimir is shown as a direct revelation of God, and as a personal decision to convert himself together with his people, without any intermediary nor foreign missionary, though with the inspiration of the Greek piety: (44) Then the visitation of the Most High came down upon him, and the all-merciful eye of the good Lord looked down upon him, and understanding shone forth in his heart, so that he understood that the idols were vain and deceitful and false, and he sought the one God, the creator of all things visible and invisible. (45) And there was more: for he often hear about the devout land of the Greeks, their love for Christ, and the strength of their faith (...) When he had heard all this, his soul was enkindled, and he desired in his heart that both he and his land should be Christian (Franklin, 1991: 18). In later passages, the author emphasizes the superiority of Vladimir compared to those who saw Jesus and did not believe, including the Apostle Thomas, and makes him worthy of being called “blessed”, for he accomplished the words of Jesus to Thomas: 4 Kagan or Khan, title of Turkic rulers. (51) (...) You neither saw Christ, nor did you walk in His footsteps; how, then, did you come to be His disciple? Others had seen Him, yet did not believe; you had not seen Him, yet you believed. Surely in you our Lord Jesus’ blessing to Thomas came true: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed!”5 (52) Thus, then, we can name you, boldly and surely, without hesitation: “O Blessed One!” The Saviour Himself thus named you (...) (Franklin, 1991: 20). Similarly, in the subsequent section it is praised that Vladimir believed though he didn’t even see the Apostles nor their miracles in his land: (53) (...) You saw no apostle visiting your land and inclining your heart to humility through his poverty and nakedness, through his hunger and thirst; you saw no demons cast out through the name of Jesus Christ, nor the sick being healed, nor the dumb given speech, nor fire made to freeze, nor the dead made to rise. Yet since you saw none of this, then how did you come to believe? (Franklin, 1991: 21). By highlighting the fact that there were no apostolic missions in the Rus’ian lands, Vladimir is compared and made equal indirectly to the Apostles. Such comparison will be repeated more explicitly at the end of the Encomium: (64) “Rejoice, O apostle among rulers: you raised not the dead in body, but us who were dead in spirit. We were dead from the disease of idolatry, and through you we revived and came to know Christ, who is life. We were bent by demonic delusion, and through you we stook straight and stepped forth in the way of the life. We were blind in the eyes of our hearts, blinded by demonic delusion, blinded by ignorance; and through you we saw through the light, the three Suns of the Godhead. We were dumb, and through you we found speech, so that now, great and small, we all glorify the one God in His Trinity. Rejoice, O our teacher, our guide in devotion” (Franklin, 1991: 25). And before, Vladimir had been equated to the emperor Constantine, who granted official toleration to Christianity and was the first Christian emperor: (57) O you likeness of Constantine the Great: of like wisdom, of like love for Christ, with like honor for His followers! With the blessed fathers of the Council of Nicaea, he set down the law for the people; and you, with our new fathers –the bishops– in frequent assembly und utmost humility took counsel on how to establish the law for these people new in their knowledge of God. He among the Hellenes and Romans made the kingdom subject to God.
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