On 15 July, 2010, the first Baptism of Rus by Prince Askold, which took place 128 years before Volodymyr's baptism, is marked.
KYIV – On 15 July, 2010, the first Baptism of Rus by Prince Askold, which took place 128 years before Volodymyr's baptism, is marked. The year 2010 is the 1150th anniversary of Prince Askold’s raid on Constantinople in 860 and his subsequent conversion to Christianity. For the occasion of the jubilee, on the blessing of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Volodymyr, the Spirit and Latter Publishing House published a book by S. Shumylo "Prince Askold and the Christianization of Rus." The book was presented on July 15 at a press conference dedicated to Askold's baptism in UNIAN information agency.
Yurii Chornomorets reported to RISU that the book is a collection of popular science articles. Shumylo brings attention to the undervaluation by the modern Orthodox Church of the baptism by Askold, and points out that in the Greek Catholic Church he is canonized as a martyr.