into the Volkoff, and broke down the idolatrous altars without
any opposition on the part of the citizens; for they, too, like the
inhabitants of Kieff, from their comparative degree of civilization and
from their relations of intercourse with the Greeks, were in all
probability already favorably disposed for the reception of
Christianity. Tradition asserts that even as far back as the time of St.
Olga the hermits Sergius and Germanus lived upon the desolate island of
Balaam in the lake Ladoga, and that from thence St. Abramius went forth
to preach Christ to the savage inhabitants of Rostoff.

The attempt to found a diocese at Rostoff was less successful. The first
two bishops, Theodore and Hilarion, were driven away by the fierce
tribes of the forest district of Meri, who held obstinately to their
idols in spite of the zeal of St. Abramius. It cost the two succeeding
bishops, St. Leontius and St. Isaiah, many years of extraordinary labor
and exertion, attended frequently by persecutions, before they at length
succeeded in establishing Christianity in that savage region, from
whence it spread itself by degrees into all the surrounding districts.

Thus Vladimir, having piously observed the commandments of Christ during
the course of his long reign, had the consolation of seeing before his
death the fruits of his own conversion in all the wide extent of his
dominions. He departed this life in peace at Kieff, and was soon
reckoned with his grandmother Olga among the guardian saints of Russia.
John, the third metropolitan, who had been sent from Constantinople upon
the death of Leontius, buried the Prince in the Church of the Tithes,
which he had built, near the tomb of the Grecian princess, his wife, and
the uncorrupted relics of St. Olga were translated to the same spot.

LEIF ERICSON DISCOVERS AMERICA

A.D. 1000

CHARLES C. RAFN

SAGA OF ERIC THE RED

(Besides the Northmen or Norsemen, those ancient Scandinavians
celebrated in history for their adventurous exploits at sea, the Chinese
and the Welsh have laid claim to the discovery of North America at
periods much earlier than that of Columbus and the Cabots. But to the
Norse sailors alone is it generally agreed that credit for that
achievement is probably due. Associated with their supposed arrival and
sojourn on the coast of what is now New England, about A.D. 1000, the
"Round Tower" or "Old Stone Mill" at Newport, R.I., the mysterious
inscription on the