Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/385

Rh was baptised by the patriarch Polyeuctes, having the emperor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, for her godfather. Olga became famous both for her wisdom and for her saintliness. "She was the forerunner of Christianity in Russia," says Nestor, "as the morning star is the precursor of the sun and the dawn the precursor of the day. As the moon shines at midnight, she shone in the midst of a pagan people. She was like a pearl amid dirt, for the people were in the mire of their sins and not yet purified by baptism. She purified herself in a holy bath, and removed the garb of sin of the old man Adam."

Olga's fierce, warlike son Sviatoslaff never submitted to the yoke of Christ; but he so far yielded to his mother's influence as to allow the open profession of Christianity among his people. In fact, very little persecution attended the introduction of the gospel into Russia, which in this respect was a noble exception to the usual experience among pagan nations. The chronicle only mentions two Christian martyrs during this period of the early evangelising of Russia, Theodore and John, who were put to death by the rage of the people because one of them refused to give up his son as a sacrifice to Perun, the Sclavonic god of thunder.

Sviatoslaff was killed in an ambush laid by the Pechenegs, a Mongolian tribe who had invaded Russia, and his skull was made into a drinking-cup. Thus perished the last pagan prince of the small territory out of which was destined to grow the vast empire of Russia. He had foolishly divided his dominion between his three sons, whose quarrels soon left only, the third son, to whom his father had bequeathed Novgorod. This prince proved to be a strong man, who not only seized all the territory that had been assigned to his brothers, but added Galicia or "Red Russia." His name is of great importance in Church history, because he proved to be the Constantine of the Russian Empire. He not only adopted Christianity for himself, but he made it the State religion. Thus almost