Orthodox Brotherhoods Ask to Revive Memory of Prince Askold’s Baptism of Rus
KYIV – Youth Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine addressed the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate with a request “for fatherly support in the church-wide celebration of the 1150th anniversary of the campaign of Prince Askold of Kyiv against Constantinople in 860 and his conversion to the holy Orthodox faith as a result.” RISU’s Ukrainian-language web site posted this story on March 4, 2010.
“Unfortunately, the memory of the initial first Baptism of Rus’ by Askold, which took place 128 years earlier than Volodymyr’s Baptism, was ignored for a long time for political reasons. Therefore, the revival and due marking of this historic event and the first Kyivan Orthodox martyr Prince Askold (Christian name Mykolai) becomes one of the most important steps in the spiritual revival of Ukraine,” says the address, as reported by the Orthodox youth portal Pritvor.
According to the document, on the initiative of Professor M. Maksymovych, in 1866, with the blessing of the Synod of the Russian Empire, the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ by Prince Askold was celebrated.
