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The story of how Prince Vladimir baptized Our Country is known to every schoolchild. But not everyone knows that he was not the first ruler to adopt Christianity. Thirty years before the Baptism of Our Country, Vladimir’s grandmother, Princess Olga, the wife of that same prince who died at the hands of the Drevlyans from the famous “Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, converted to Orthodoxy.
Olga went down in history as a wise and just ruler, and the church has been honoring her as a saint for several centuries. Who was the princess who first brought Christianity to Our Country? About this – in our material.
When is St. Olga’s Day celebrated in 2022
St. Olga’s Day in 2022, as always, will be celebrated July 24.
Olga and revenge on the Drevlyans
The exact origin of the future Kyiv ruler is unknown. A number of researchers believe that she was originally from the Pskov Varangians (the name also speaks in favor of this version, in the Scandinavian version it sounds like “Helga”), others mention the Bulgarian lands, and someone even calls her the daughter of the Prophetic Oleg, who , in fact, he married the girl to the Kyiv prince Igor. When the son of a young couple, Svyatoslav, was three years old, that ill-fated campaign from “The Tale of the Regiment …” just happened. From it, Igor was not destined to return alive. The Drevlyans sent Olga the body of her murdered husband, and at the same time the matchmakers – they offered the newly-made widow to marry their tribal prince Mal.
The princess refused a new marriage, and ordered the ambassadors to be buried alive in the ground along with the boat on which they arrived. However, her revenge didn’t end there. At the head of the army, Olga went to the Drevlyan capital Iskorosten and burned it to the ground with the help of birds, to whose paws she ordered to tie a burning tow.
Olga and government
Having imposed tribute on the defeated Drevlyans, Olga returned to Kyiv, where she ruled until the age of her son Svyatoslav. Strictly speaking, she ruled even after – Svyatoslav had a hot temper and preferred military campaigns and hot battles to sitting in the halls. In them, he spent most of his reign, entrusting the care of the state to his mother. And she succeeded in this field, being known as a far-sighted ruler.
Olga streamlined the collection of taxes and established for this a kind of trade centers (“graveyards”). She was engaged in the improvement of the lands subject to Kyiv, dividing them into administrative units under the control of the princely governor. She also cared a lot about the defense of the country entrusted to her: she established the first borders of Kievan Rus and strengthened the cities standing on them. It was during her reign that the first stone buildings appeared in Kyiv (they were the city palace of the princess and her own country tower). Olga also expanded ties with her neighbors, attracting foreign merchants to Our Country.
Olga and her baptism
The Kyiv archontissa (ruler, as the Byzantines called her) adopted Christianity in Constantinople in 955 or 957. She was baptized under the name of Helen by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus himself (or his son and co-ruler Roman) and Patriarch Theophylact. Returning to Kyiv, the princess tried to introduce the pagan Svyatoslav to the new faith, but he, fearing that the squad would ridicule him with a peaceful religion, categorically refused. Then Olga predicted that Christianity would soon come to Our Country anyway, and she turned out to be right. She started small – she began to slowly build Orthodox churches in Kyiv and other cities. Finally, the new religion was destined to be fixed in the state by her grandson Vladimir.
By the way, Kyiv owes its main attraction to Olga – St. Sophia Cathedral. The princess founded a wooden church in honor of St. Sophia in the capital of her principality. It burned down during a fire in 1017, but in the same place, Olga’s great-grandson Yaroslav the Wise erected a stone temple, which has survived to this day.
They buried the princess who died in 969 according to the Christian rite. In the XNUMXth century, Olga was canonized as a saint Equal to the Apostles (these are the saints who during their lifetime became famous for preaching the Christian faith and converting people to it). By the way, only six women received this honor together with Olga, one of them was Mary Magdalene.
Olga and the veneration of the saint
The memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga is celebrated on July 24, this is the day of her death. She is considered the patroness of widows and newly converted Christians.
The saint is especially revered in her supposed homeland, in Pskov, where the Olginskaya embankment was laid out in memory of her, a bridge was built and two monuments were erected. There is even a portrait of the princess in the Vatican, in St. Peter’s Basilica. A bay in the Sea of Japan is also named after the saint.
And – an unexpected fact: there is a temple and a monument dedicated to the princess in the modern Ukrainian city of Korosten – the former Iskorosten, the same Drevlyansk capital that she once took by storm.