Eastern Orthodox Paganism

When Vladimir the Great converted from Slavic paganism to Christianity, he used the occasion to try to unify a wide heterogeneous culture. The Russian Primary Chronicle for 980 discusses the Slavic gods prior to conversion:

And Vladimir began to reign alone in Kiev. And he placed idols on the hill outside the palace: a Perun in wood with a silver head and a gold moustache, and Khors Dazhdbog and Stribog and Simargl and Mokosh.

Vladimir was willing to incorporate Christianity and paganism, so although he had the temple mentioned in the Primary Chronicle torn down and the idols thrown into the Dniester, the growing Church linked the Slavic deities with Christian saints. Perun, god of thunder and lightning, was equated with Elijah the prophet, known for bringing fire down from the sky. Veles of the underworld was linked to Saint Blaise. Yarilo, god of spring and agriculture, was linked to St. George. The dates of pagan festivals found themselves celebrating Christian festivals, so Christmas–Easter–Whitsunday were used for the indigenous festivals Koliada (Winter Solstice), Yarilo (Spring), Kupala (Summer Solstice). The Virgin Mary was iconized as "Fiery Mary" ("Ognyena Maria"; see illustration), and turned into a sister of Perun.

Supposedly, Vladimir turned all his territory Christian in eight years, but in truth pagan beliefs and practices lingered for centuries. Vladimir's baptism ritual was not repeated for his followers, and in fact not routinely used until the 20th century; the "Christianization" was essentially a nation-wide declaration.

Even today, there are "Old Believers" or "Old Ritualists" in Eastern Orthodox Christianity who still want to follow rituals that were considered inappropriate by the Orthodox Church, who tried to stamp them out in the Stoglav Synod of 1551. The text of the synod was turned into 100 chapters, which in Russian is sto glav. Each chapter is worded as answers to 100 questions by Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (sometimes called Ivan the Terrible).

The shift from Paganism to Christianity was sometimes evolutionary, sometimes revolutionary. Tomorrow we'll take a closer look at how some rulers chose to either tolerate or mandate religious practices.