d, his
new religion. He embarked his warriors on board their vessels and
attacked Cherson in the Taurid, a city which was subject to the emperors
Basil and Constantine.

After a long and unsuccessful siege a certain priest, named Anastasius,
by means of an arrow shot from the town, informed the Prince that the
fate of the besieged depended upon his cutting off the aqueducts, which
supplied them with water. Vladimir in great joy made a vow that he would
be baptized if he gained possession of the town; and he did gain
possession of it. Then he sent to Constantinople to demand from the
Greek Emperor the hand of their sister Anna, and they in answer proposed
as a condition that he should embrace Christianity; for though they
themselves desired an alliance with so powerful a prince, they at the
same time took care to follow the prudent and pious policy of their
predecessors, who had ever sought to bring their fierce neighbors under
the humanizing influence of the faith. The Prince declared his consent;
because, in his own words, he had "long since examined and conceived a
love for the Greek law."

It was her faith alone which influenced the princess to sacrifice
herself at once for the temporal interests of her own country and for
the eternal welfare of a strange people. Accompanied by a venerable body
of clergy, she sailed for Cherson, and on her arrival induced the Prince
to hasten his baptism. "For it was so ordered," says the pious annalist,
"by the wisdom of God, that the sight of the Prince was at that time
much affected by a complaint of the eyes, but at the moment that the
Bishop of Cherson laid his hands upon him, when he had risen up out of
the bath of regeneration, Vladimir suddenly received not only spiritual
illumination, but also the bodily sight of his eyes, and cried out, 'Now
I have seen the true God!'"

Many of the Prince's suite were so struck by his miraculous recovery
that they followed his example and were baptized in like manner; and
these were doubtless afterward zealous for the introduction of
Christianity into their country. The baptism and marriage of Vladimir
were both celebrated in the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God; and
hence, no doubt, arose his peculiar zeal for the most pure Virgin, to
whose honor he afterward erected a cathedral church in his own city of
Kieff. In Cherson itself he built a church, in the name of his angel or
patron St. Basil; and taking with him the relics of St. C