Theodore and John the Varangians

Theodore the Varangian and his son John are two Varangian Christians of Kiev, killed by a pagan mob in the tenth century, regarded as the first known martyrs of Rus. Saint Simon, in his letter to Venerable Polycarp, calls them the first citizens of heaven from the Russian land, crowned by Christ for whom they died. Their commemoration is on 12 July.

The story

Theodore was born in the tenth century, served long in Byzantium, where he was baptized, and then moved to Kiev. He had a son, John, a Christian like him and one of the prince's best warriors. In old manuscripts his pagan name is written Tur (the Scandinavian Thor) or Utor (Ottar).

The Primary Chronicle tells that the elders and boyars decided to cast lots for a boy or girl to be sacrificed to the gods. The lot fell on John, son of the Varangian Theodore, who had come from the Land of the Greeks and secretly confessed the Christian faith. John was, according to the chronicle, fair in face and soul. Messengers came to Theodore, saying that the gods had chosen his son. He answered that those were not gods but wood, which is today and rots tomorrow, does not eat, drink or speak, made by hand with axe and knife. There is one God, whom the Greeks worship, who made heaven, earth, man, the stars, the sun and the moon. He would not give his son to demons. The messengers told the crowd, who took up arms and burst into his courtyard. Theodore stood on the porch with his son. They told him to give the son so they could bring him to the gods. He answered that if they were gods, let them send one of themselves to take him, and why did they offer them sacrifices. Then they cut away the porch from under them, and so both were killed. No one knows where they were laid, for the people of that time were ignorant and not Christian.

Dating and research

The exact date of the killing is not known: the Chronicle puts it in 983, another version on 12 July 978, and some think it happened in the summer of 983. The story in the Chronicle is a late insertion, probably from the compilation of the 1090s, perhaps made on the basis of a short synaxarion note for the commemoration of local martyrs. The Chronicle does not know their names, and some details, such as the place of death, are unfounded. Human sacrifice among the Slavs is attested by several sources. It is said in church writing that the event influenced Vladimir's decision to be baptized, amazed by Theodore's courage, standing alone before the crowd.

Remembrance

At the place of their death Prince Vladimir later built the Church of the Tithes of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the first stone church of Kiev, consecrated on 12 May 996. The relics of the martyr John were found in ancient times and rest in the Near (Anthony's) Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra. As no account of their finding survives, Golubinsky supposed it was done through a revelation. The location of Theodore's relics is unknown. On 5 June 1983, in honour of the thousand years since their death, the Russian Orthodox Youth Committee held a celebration with 600 participants, led by Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky), hierarch of the Church Abroad.