Editorial: St. Vladimir the patron saint of rebuilding and faith?
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St. Vladimir was not your typical holy figure.
Long before the majority of Europe became Christian countries, Vladimir was a prince of what would become the Russian city of Novgorod. He later became Grand Prince of Kiev.
The titles — including his moniker of Vladimir the Great — sound majestic. But in the 10th century, being a ruler could be a messy business. Vladimir’s path to his crown was not just paved with pagan worship and 800 concubines. He was a brutal military campaigner and not much of a diplomat. When trying to make an alliance with one ruler that included marrying the man’s daughter, he was rebuffed. That prompted him to murder the girl’s parents, steal her and marry her anyway.
Eight years later, Vladimir converted to Christianity and brought the rest of his country with him. Without Vladimir, there would be no Catholicism in much of Eastern Europe. That led to his reformation into the patron saint of Russia and Ukraine.
The way something unarguably bad can be redeemed seems poignant as St. Vladimir’s namesake church in Arnold was devastated by a fire Saturday night. Smoke billowed in and around the domed spires with their elegant geometric masonry, with flames visible behind the cross above the rosette window at the front. The metal roof was left in jagged shards.
But on Sunday morning, the congregation — small at just 35 people but steadfast — met in their neighboring social hall to celebrate the Divine Liturgy anyway.
“The first thing is to keep alive our faith,” said the Rev. Yaroslav Koval.
Faith was not one of the precious artifacts carried out of the fire. The tabernacle that is used in Holy Communion was. Statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Metal crosses. The Book of Gospel. Shrouds. All these and more made it out. Most important, the fire claimed no lives and caused no injuries.
“It’s just so sad,” said Mike Haracznak, who was baptized in the church and spent his whole life attending services there.
It is sad. The church was 74 years old. That is a loss of decades of meaning to the community. But the fire didn’t touch the pulpit or the pews. Most of the stained glass remains luminously beautiful.
If St. Vladimir himself could be rebuilt from a pagan barbarian prince into a saint, there is no reason that the stalwart congregation of a committed church in Arnold can’t see their spiritual home rebuilt to continue to celebrate their faith.