Christian Russia In The Making

Description: The present collection of studies by Andrzej Poppe in many ways represents a continuation of the research brought together a quarter century ago in the author's previous Variorum volume. The focal themes are the political circumstances of the 'baptism of Russia' and the processes by which Rus' became a Christian country, an era marked by the emergence of indigenous saints in royal and monastic garb. Relations with the Byzantine world, both political and ecclesiastical, are often to the fore, but as Poppe shows, those with the West, from the Carolingians onwards, were important too. Many of the articles are provided with additional notes, and the volume includes three pieces previously unpublished in English, including an introductory survey of the Rurikid dynasty, and a major new study of the process by which Vladimir the Great became a saint.

Contents: Preface; The Rurikid dynasty or 700 years of shaping Eastern Europe; Once again concerning the baptism of Olga, Archontissa of Rus' (with addendum); How the conversion of Rus' was understood in the 11th century; Two concepts of the conversion of Rus' in Kievan writings; The Christianization and ecclesiastical structure of Kievan Rus' to 1300; Leontios, Abbot of Patmos, candidate for the metropolitan see of Rus'; Losers on earth, winners from heaven. The assassination of Boris and Gleb in the making of 11th-century Rus'; The sainthood of Vladimir the Great: veneration in-the-making; Words in the service of the authority: on the title of 'Grand Prince' in Kievan Russia (with addendum); On the title of 'Grand Prince' in the Tale of Ihor's Campaign; Some observations on the bronze doors of St. Sophia in Novgorod (with addendum); On the so-called Chersonian antiquities (with addendum); Index.