Life of Saint Olga

Saint Olga was born in Russia, between 890 and 925 – the exact date of birth is unknown – and was the daughter of barang nobles.  The later First Chronicle places her in 879, but based on this date it seems that she gave birth to her only son Svyatoslav at the age of over 60! It is more likely that he was born in 889.

At a very young age, only 13 years old, Olga married the Rurikian Igor, later head of the Russian State, and settled in Kiev.
Her husband was murdered in 945 by the Drevlians while collecting tribute, and the throne passed to their young son Sviatoslav who was still an infant.

So Olga assumed the duties of commissioner until he came of age, exercising real power in the state for almost two decades.
Her first concern was to avenge the loss of her husband, which she did with great ferocity.

In a time when there was no written record and it is difficult to distinguish fact from fable, he is said to have slaughtered many Drevlians and imprisoned others alive in ships, which he then sank. Others were executed at the stake, while finally the following characteristic story is witnessed:

While besieging a city, she promised to withdraw if each house gave her a homing pigeon as propitiation.
The besieged believed her and gave her gifts, but as she was leaving Olga set fire to the pigeons’ feet.

Terrified, these instinctively turned to their hearths, setting fire to the wooden roofs of the houses. So the whole city burned down.
On a religious level, Olga was the first Russian leader to abandon paganism for Christianity.

Her baptism took place in 955 AD. with great solemnity in Constantinople and received the Christian name Eleni from her godmother Eleni Lekapini, wife of Emperor Constantine VII.

Another visit of hers to the City, two years later, is described in detail by Constantine in his treatise De Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae.

Slavic sources state that Constantine was impressed by her beauty and asked for her hand in marriage, a rumor that is negated both by her age and by the fact that Constantine was already married.

The last years of her life, after Sviatoslav came of age and the end of the governorship (965), she spent in Vysgorod Castle near Kiev with her grandchildren.

One of her grandsons, Vladimir, would later become the Russian leader who introduced Christianity as the official state religion.

At the same time, Olga exercised the internal administration, since Svyatoslav was constantly absent on long campaigns.

Death found her at an advanced age in 969. For her efforts to spread Christianity in the territory of the Russians, she was declared a saint and equal apostle by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1587.

She is commemorated on the date of her death (according to the Julian calendar), July 11.