John of Kiev

Holy Martyr John of Kiev, also called John the Infant, is a child martyr of Kiev, killed in 983 together with his father Theodore. They are reckoned the first Christian martyrs of Kievan Rus. The Primary Chronicle says that in 983 Grand Prince Vladimir, still a pagan, defeated the Yatvingians and, returning to Kiev, made an offering to the idols. The elders and boyars decided to cast lots on a boy and a girl for sacrifice. The lot fell on the son of a Varangian who lived there, on the site where the Tithe Church was later to rise, and who had come from Greece and confessed the Christian faith.

The Varangian rebuked the pagans' faith and said he would not give his son to "demons". The armed crowd broke down the fence, and father and son, standing on the porch, refused to hand the boy over. The pagans then cut away the porch beneath them and killed them; the chronicle says no one knows where they were laid. In a collection of saints' lives from the 15th century the two appear by name as Theodore and John. Their commemoration appears in a 15th-⁠century Prologue, under 12 May.

John's relics lie in the Near Caves of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, where a map of 1703 marked relics with the name "John" and in 1795 they were called the relics of "the holy martyr John the Infant". The location of the father's relics is unknown. Prayer to John is offered by those who seek children. He is commemorated on 25 July (new style; 12 July old style) and in some sources also on 11 October.