The first saints of the Russian Church, martyrs Sts Theodore and John, gave their lives for Christ in Kiev on this day in 983. There were famous Varangian bodyguards serving the Byzantine emperor in Miklagard (Constaninople). It is not necessary that Theodore was a Scandinavian. He might have been a Slavic member of that elite military unit. In the ancient chronicles, the martyrs are not named: “There was only one Varangian, and his courtyard was where there is the churche for the Most Holy Theotokos, which Volodymer built. That Varangian came from the Greeks, holding the Christian faith, and he had a son, beautiful in face and soul." In one of the hagiographic collections of the 15th century on July 12, both martyrs, father and son, were already named: Theodore and John. St. Theodore spent a long time in military service in Byzantium, where he received holy baptism. His pagan name, preserved in the name “Turov’s Goddess,” was Tur (Scandinavian Thor) or Utor (Scandinavian Ottar), both spellings are found in ancient manuscripts. Returning to Rus', he taught the holy faith to his son John. Conversion to Christianity by Holy Prince Vladimir was part of the process of reforming Kievan Rus. Prior to his conversion in 983, Grand Duke Vladimir, then still a zealous pagan, after a military victory over the Yatvingians, wished to sacrifice to idols. The “elders and boyars” advised the prince to choose a young man or girl for the sacrifice. And the elders and boyars said: "Let us cast lots on the youths and maidens; on whomever it falls, we will slaughter him as a sacrifice to the gods.” Obviously, not without intent, the lot cast by the pagan priests fell on the Christian John. When those sent to Theodore reported that his son “the gods chose for themselves, let us sacrifice him to them,” the old warrior decisively replied: “These are not gods, but wood. Today they exist, but tomorrow they will rot. They do not eat, drink, or speak, but are made of wood by human hands. There is One God, the Greeks serve and worship Him. He created the heavens and the earth, the stars and the moon, the sun and man, and destined him to live on earth. And what did these gods create? I will not give my son to the demons.” This was a direct Christian challenge to the customs and beliefs of the pagans. An armed crowd of pagans rushed to Theodore, destroyed his yard, and surrounded his house. Theodore, according to the chronicler, “stood in the entryway with his son,” courageously meeting the enemies with weapons in his hands. He calmly looked at the raving pagans and said: “If they are gods, let them send one of the gods and take my son.” Seeing that in a fair fight they could not defeat the brave and skilled warriors Theodore and John, the besiegers cut down the pillars of the gallery, and when they collapsed, they crowded on the confessors and killed them. Already in the era of St. Nestor, less than a hundred years after the confessional feat of the Kiev Varangians, the Russian Orthodox Church revered them in the host of saints. Theodore and John became the first martyrs for the holy Orthodox faith in the Russian land. They were called the first “Russian citizens of the heavenly city” by the copyist of the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, Saint Bishop Simon of Vladimir (+ 1226). The last of the bloody pagan victims in Kiiv became the first holy Christian sacrifice - co-crucifixion with Christ. On the site of the martyrdom of the Varangians, Saint Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, subsequently erected the Tithe Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated on May 12, 996. The lower frame of the wooden house of the holy Varangian martyrs, burned a thousand years ago, has survived to this day; it was discovered in 1908, during excavations in Kyiv, at the altar of the Church of the Tithes. |
