Saint Vladimir the Great and St Theodore & Church of the Tithes 1 Hryvnia Ukraine Authentic Banknote Money for Collage (Falcon)

Saint Vladimir the Great & Saint Theodore & Church of the Tithes 1 Hryvnia Ukraine Authentic Banknote Money for Jewelry and Collage (Volodymyr the Great) (Falcon and Sword) (Tryzub)

Obverse: Portrait of Volodymyr the Great (c. 958 - 1015), the Grand Prince of Kyiv (Kiev), also known as Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great, the Prince of Novgorod.
Saint Theodore, another Saint (possibly his son Saint John) and an acolyte during church ceremony.
Saints Theodore and John are invoked by women who have miscarried.
Tryzub, the national coat of arms of Ukraine.
Stylised grivna from the times of Kievan Rus as registration device.
Script: Cyrillic
Lettering: НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ БАНК УКРАЇНИ
ГОЛОВА
1
ВОЛОДИМИР ВЕЛИКИЙ
1
1
ОДНА ГРИВНЯ
Translation: NATIONAL BANK OF UKRAINE
HEAD
1
VOLODYMYR THE GREAT
1
1
ONE HRYVNIA

Reverse: Diorama of Volodymyr’s Burg in Kyiv (Detynets; Citadel) with the Church of the Tithes or Church of the Dormition of the Virgin (built by the order of Volodymyr the Great) in the front.
Artistic composition depicting a battle axe, a fullered arming
sword, a cross, a flail and an falcon as elements of design from the times of Volodymyr the Great.
Logo emblem of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Script: Cyrillic
Lettering: ОДНА ГРИВНЯ
НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ БАНК УКРАЇНИ
1
ГРАД ВОЛОДИМИРА У КИЄВІ
2006
1
Translation: ONE HRYVNIA
NATIONAL BANK OF UKRAINE
1
VOLODYMYR'S CITADEL IN KYIV
2006
1

Watermark: Volodymyr the Great with hryvnia symbol (₴) below

Features
Issuer Ukraine
Issuing entity National Bank of Ukraine
Period Republic (1991-date)
Type Standard banknote
Years 2006-2018
Value 1 Hryvnia
1 UAH = USD 0.036
Currency Hryvnia (1996-date)
Composition Paper
Size 118 × 63 mm
Shape Rectangular
Number N# 202697
References P# 116A, B# 844

Wikipedia:
Vladimir Sviatoslavich (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь; c. 958 – 15 July 1015), called the Great, was Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev, and ruler of Kievan Rus' from 980 to 1015.

Vladimir's father was Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev of the Rurik dynasty. After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976 after his brother Yaropolk murdered his other brother Oleg of Drelinia and conquered Rus'. In Sweden, with the help of his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. By 980, Vladimir had consolidated the Rus realm from modern-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarians, Baltic tribes and Eastern nomads. Originally a follower of Slavic paganism, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus'. He is thus also known as Saint Vladimir.

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, after consultation with his boyars, Vladimir the Great sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them, only sorrow and a great stench. He also reported that Islam was undesirable due to its prohibition of alcoholic beverages and pork. Vladimir remarked on the occasion: "Drinking is the joy of all Rus'. We cannot exist without that pleasure." Ukrainian and Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys and questioning them about their religion, but ultimately rejecting it as well, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence that they had been abandoned by God.

His emissaries also visited pre-schism Latin Rite Christian and Eastern Rite Christian missionaries. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Eastern Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth", they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys.

Significance and legacy
The Eastern Orthodox, Byzantine Rite Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15/28 July.

St Volodymyr's Cathedral, one of the largest cathedrals in Kyiv, is dedicated to Vladimir the Great, as was originally the Kyiv University. The Imperial Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States are also named after him.

The memory of Vladimir was also kept alive by innumerable Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko (the Fair Sun, or the Red Sun; Красно Солнышко in Russian). The Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases with Vladimir, and the Christian period begins. The appropriation of Kievan Rus' as part of national history has also been a topic of contention in Ukrainophile vs. Russophile schools of historiography since the Soviet era. Today, he is regarded as a symbol in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

All branches of the economy prospered under him. He minted coins and regulated foreign affairs with other countries, such as trade, bringing in Greek wines, Baghdad spices, and Arab horses for the markets of Kiev.

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Wikipedia:
The Church of the Tithes or Church of the Dormition of the Virgin (Ukrainian: Десятинна Церква, Desiatynna Tserkva; Russian: Десятинная Церковь, Desyatinnaya Tserkov') was the first stone church in Kyiv. Originally it was built by the order of Grand Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr) the Great between 989 and 996[1] by Byzantine and local workers at the site of death of martyrs Theodor the Varangian and his son Johann. It was originally named the "Church of Our Lady", in honor of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The church was ruined in 1240 during the siege of Kyiv by Mongol armies of Batu Khan.

Vladimir set aside a tithe of his income and property to finance the church's construction and maintenance, which gave the church its popular name.

On an initiative of the Metropolitan of Kyiv Eugene Bolkhovitinov, the church was rebuilt in the mid 19th century, but in 1928 it was once again destroyed by the Soviet regime.
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The Holy Martyrs Theodore the Varangian and his son John lived at Kiev in the tenth century, when the Varangians, ancestors of the present day Swedes and Norwegians took an active role in the governance and military life of Rus. Merchants and soldiers, they opened up new trade routes to Byzantium and to the East, they took part in campaigns against Constantinople, and they constituted a significant part of the populace of ancient Kiev and the princely mercenary retinues. The chief trade route of Rus, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, was then called “the Way from the Varangians to the Greeks.”

The chieftains and organizers of the early Russian realm relied upon their Varangian retinues in their undertakings. Just like the Slavs, among whom they lived, many of the sea-faring newcomers under the influence of the Byzantine Church accepted holy Baptism. Kievan Rus stood between the pagan Scandinavians and the Orthodox Byzantines. Therefore, the spiritual life at Kiev was affected by the vivifying influence of the Christian Faith (under Saint Askold in the years 860-882, under Igor and Saint Olga in the years 940-950), and then by the destructive whirlwind of paganism, blowing down from the north from the Varangian Sea (under the reign of Oleg, killing Askold in 882; under the revolt of the Drevliani murdering Igor in 945; under Prince Svyatoslav, who refused to accept Baptism despite the insistence of his mother, Saint Olga).

When Svyatoslav was killed by the Pechenegs in 972 (other sources say in 970), the principality of Kiev was entrusted to his eldest son, Yaropolk. Oleg, the middle son, held the Drevlianian land, while Vladimir, the youngest son, held Novgorod. The reign of Yaropolk (970-978), just like that of his grandmother Olga, again became a time of predominating Christian influence in the spiritual life of Rus. Yaropolk himself, in the opinion of historians, confessed Christianity, although possibly of the Latin rite, and this did not correspond at all to the interests of the Scandinavian mercenary retinue. They were pagans, who were accustomed to consider Kiev a bulwark of their own influence in the Slavic lands. Their leaders strove to create discord between the brothers themselves. They incited a fratricidal war between Yaropolk and Oleg. After this when Oleg was killed, they supported Vladimir in a struggle against Yaropolk.

The future Baptizer of Rus started on his way as a convinced pagan and he relied upon the Varangians, especially those having come to him from over the sea, as his military force. His campaign against Kiev in 978, crowned with complete success, pursued not only military-political aims: it was also a religious campaign of Russo-Varangian paganism against the outgrowth of Kievan Christianity. On June 11, 978 Vladimir “sat on the throne of his father at Kiev,” and the hapless Yaropolk, invited by his brother for negotiations, was treacherously murdered when he arrived at the entrance hall by two Varangians who stabbed him with swords. In order to intimidate the Kievans, among whom were already many Christians both Russian and Varangian, to renew and strengthen with new idols, human sacrifices were made in the pagan sanctuary, a practice unknown to the Dniepr Slavs until then. The chronicles speak of Vladimir setting up idols: “And they brought them sacrifices, acclaiming them gods, and they brought to them their own sons and daughters, and these sacrifices went to the devils... both the Russian land and this hill were defiled with blood”.

The martyrdom of Saints Theodore and his son John may have taken place during this first period of the triumph of paganism at Kiev with Vladimir’s accession to power. In that case, the date might be July 12, 978. It is probable, however, that the exploit of the holy martyrs took place in the year 983, when the wave of pagan reaction rolled not only through Rus, but throughout all the Slavic-Germanic world. Almost simultaneously pagans rose up against Christ and the Church in Denmark, Germany, the Baltic Slavic principalities, and everywhere the unrest was accompanied by the destruction of churches, and by the killing of clergy and Christian confessors. This was the year Vladimir went on campaign against the Lithuanian tribe of the Yatvyagi, and gained victory over them. In recognition of this victory the Kievan pagan priests again decided to make a bloody sacrificial offering.

“Among the Kievans,” reports Saint Nestor the Chronicler, “lived a Varangian by the name of Theodore, who was in military service at Constantinople long before this, and was baptized there. His pagan name, preserved in the term ‘Turov pagan temple,’ was Tur (Scandinavian Thor) or Utor (Scandinavian Ottar), and this other signature is also found in the old manuscripts. Theodore had a son John, a devout and handsome youth, confessing Christianity like his father.”

“And the elders and boyars said: let us cast lots upon the boys and girls. Upon whichever one it falls, that one we shall slaughter in sacrifice to the gods.” The lots thrown by the pagan priests, evidently not by chance, fell upon the Christian John.

When the messengers told Theodore that his son “had been chosen by the gods themselves to be sacrificed to them,” the old warrior decisively answered: “This is not a god, but wood. Today it is, and tomorrow it rots. They do not eat, nor drink nor speak, but are crafted by human hands from wood. God however is One, and the Greeks serve and worship Him. He created heaven and earth, the stars and the moon, the sun and man, and foreordained him to live upon the earth. But these gods, what have they created? They themselves are made. I shall not give my son over to devils.”

This was a direct challenge by the Christian to the customs and beliefs of the pagans. An enraged crowd of pagans rushed at Theodore, smashed up his courtyard, and surrounded the house. Theodore, in the words of the chronicler, “stood at the entrance way with his son,” and with weapon in hand he bravely met the enemy. (The entrance way in old Russian houses as mentioned was set up on posts of a roofed gallery of the second storey, which was reached by a ladder). He calmly gazed upon the demon-possessed pagans and said: “If they are gods, let them send one of the gods to take my son.” Seeing that the brave and seasoned warriors Theodore and John could not be beaten in a fair fight, the besiegers knocked down the gallery posts. When they were broken, the crowd rushed upon the confessors and murdered them.

Already during the time of Saint Nestor, less than a hundred years after the confessor’s deed of the Varangians, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered them among the Saints. Theodore and John became the first martyrs for the holy Orthodox Faith in the Russian land. They were called the first “Russian citizens of the heavenly city” by the transcriber of the Kiev Caves Paterikon, the holy Bishop Simon of Suzdal (May 10). The last of the bloody pagan sacrifices at Kiev became the first holy Christian sacrifice with a co-suffering for Christ. The pathway “from the Varangians to the Greeks” became for Rus the pathway from paganism to Orthodoxy, from darkness to light.

On the place of the martyrdom of the Varangians, Saint Vladimir later built the Desyatin Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, consecrated on May 12, 996. The relics of Saint Olga were transferred into it in the year 1007.

Wondrous is God in His saints! Time does not spare stones and bronze, but the lower framework of the wooden house of the holy Varangrian martyrs, burned a thousand years before, has been preserved to our day. It was discovered in the year 1908 during the excavation of the altar of the Desyatin church at Kiev.

Saints Theodore and John are invoked by women who have miscarried.

Source: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2014/07/12/102009-martyrs-theodore-and-his-son-john-of-kiev

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Wikipedia:
The state coat of arms of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державний Герб України Derzhavnyi Herb Ukrainy), officially referred to as the Sign of the Princely State of Vladimir the Great (Constitution of Ukraine, Article 20) or commonly the Tryzub (Ukrainian: Тризуб, "trident"), is the national coat of arms of Ukraine.

The modern "trident" symbol was adopted as the coat of arms of the Ukrainian People's Republic in February 1918. The design has precedents in seals of the Kievan Rus'. The first known archeological and historical evidence of this symbol can be found on the seals of the Rurik dynasty. However, according to Pritsak, the stylized trident tamga, or seal which was used by Rus' rulers such as Sviatoslav I of Kiev and similar tamgas that were found in ruins are Khazar in origin. It was stamped on the gold and silver coins issued by Prince Volodymyr the Great (980–1015), who might have inherited the symbol from his ancestors (such as Svyatoslav I Igorevich) as a dynastic coat of arms, and he passed it on to his sons, Svyatopolk I (1015–19) and Yaroslav the Wise (1019–54). The symbol was also found on the bricks of the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv, the tiles of the Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, and the stones of other churches, castles, and palaces. There are many examples of it used on ceramics, weapons, rings, medallions, seals, and manuscripts.

Most historians agree that the medieval symbol was not intended as depicting a trident, but rather, was a symbol of the Holy Trinity; it also was most likely a stylized falcon. Depictions of a flying falcon with a Christian cross above its head have been found in Old Ladoga, the first seat of the Kievan Rurik dynasty, of Scandinavian lineage. Such a falcon, along with a cross are also featured on the coins of Olaf Guthfrithsson, a Viking king of Dublin and Northumbria. Falconry for centuries has been a royal sport in Europe. The gyrfalcon (known also as Norwegian falcon) was considered a royal bird and is mentioned (ukr.: рарог) in one of the earliest epics of Ruthenia, the 12th century poem The Tale of Ihor's Campaign.

A three-fingered hand salute is sometimes used to mimic the Tryzub; as for example in pro-independence demonstrations in the late 1980s and in the logo of the (Ukrainian) Svoboda party.