This Robe was taken in procession around the Church and was dipped into the water. An honourable truce was soon concluded between Askold and the Emperor. St Photios then declared July 2 a Feast Day in honour of the Placing of the Robe at the Church of Blachernae to commemorate the saving of Constantinople.
The spiritually moving events of that time left their mark on the Kyivan Prince, however. Askold sent a delegation to Constantinople in October of that same year to conclude further treaties, among which were articles about the Baptism of Kyivan Rus'. Sts. Cyril and Methodius were then sent by St Photios the Patriarch to Kyiv where the two brothers met with Prince Askold in AD861.
Askold was baptized, as were many of his subjects, and received the name "Nicholas." Sts. Cyril and Methodius sent the Slavonic service and other books to Kyivan Rus'.Metropolitan Michael became the first Primate of Kyiv on the appointment of Patriarch St Photios. Askold and Dir were later killed as defenders of Christianity in their struggle against Oleh. It was Oleh however who popularized Kyiv as the "Mother of all the cities of Rus'," a play on the Greek meaning of the word, "Metropolia." Along with the first Baptism of Kyivan Rus' came a great devotion to the Blachernae Mother of God and Her Robe. From that time, Kyivan Rus' was very devoted to the Mantle of Protection of the Virgin Mary, or the Ukrainian word Pokrova and its feast, October 1, became a national holiday in Ukraine. The very first Church of the Kyivan Caves Lavra was that of the Blachernae Mother of God.
The same Mantle of Protection that saved Constantinople, saved many places in Ukraine, especially the Pochayiv Mother of God. The Akathist Hymn in honour of the Mother of God is said to date from AD860 to thank Her for the saving of Constantinople. It was at the singing of its first verse at Pochayiv in the seventeenth century during a Turkish seige of the monastery that the Mother of God appeared and spared the people there. See also http://www.unicorne.org/orthodoxy/articles/saints_icons/saints_new/cryrillo.htm
Pokrova It was the Kyivan Prince Askold who, on 18 June AD860, arrived with his fleet of over 200 ships, into the Bay of the Golden Horn to threaten Constantinople. St Photios the Patriarch ordered prayer to be said by one and all in the City of Constantine, especially in the Church of Blachernae which contained the holy Robe of the Mother of God.