|
The Beginnings of Christianity in Kyivan Rus’:
Due to the creation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv within the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Late 10th century, Rus’ became part of Christian civilization, Prior to Christianity being officially adopted as the state religion in 988, there were already pockets of Christianity in the territory of the medieval Kyivan state and adjacent areas, though some of them had fallen into decay. There is a widely known tradition that St. Andrew the Apostle blessed the lands of what later became Ukraine. Hem ay have actually reached Greek settlements in today southern Ukraine, but it is unlikely that he travelled further north. There is also a tradition that St. Paul, when preaching in the Balkans, sent his disciple Andronicus, “one of the seventy,” to the Slavs. There is also the witness of the Fathers of the Church, including St. John Chrysostom (d. 407), St. Athanasius the Great (d. 373) and blessed Jerome of Stridon (d. 420), which tell us of the spread of Christianity among the Scythians and Samaritans. |