St. Olga, the first Russian saint included in the Byzantine Catholic calendar, possesses a halo of uncommon sanctity.
Newsroom (6/01/2023 8:48 PM, Gaudium Press) Let us go back to the middle of the ninth century and look at a distant region between Asia and Europe, whose contours, if they were traced on today’s maps, would encompass lands belonging to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Around the year 860, a confederation of Slavic tribes began to form there under the rule of Rurik, a chief of Scandinavian explorers known as Varegs. When he died, he was succeeded by his relative Oleg, who, expanding the domains of the incipient nation, conquered the strategic Kiev and established the capital there. The first East Slavic state was born, which would go down in history under the name of Rus of Kiev.
Years later, when Oleg died, it fell to Prince Igor, a descendant of Rurik, to assume sovereignty. He had married in 903 a young woman of Vareg origin named Olga, a name derived from the Norse Helga which means, curiously, sacred or saintly.
Olga was a pagan, just like her husband and his people, and it would be some time before grace worked in her soul.
A vengeful and restless heart
In 945, Igor was brutally murdered by the Drevlians, a tributary people of Kiev who rose up against the excessive collection of taxes. This event completely changed the life of the great princess, not only because the regency fell into her hands, since her son was not old enough to rule, but also because it provoked in her a violent reaction of revenge against her husband’s murderers.
Yes, for if it is true that she possessed wisdom and a sufficient pulse to command the principality even in an age when wars were the norm and periods of peace a mere accident, there was something very important that escaped her control, as indeed happens to every human being devoid of supernatural powers: she could not control the evil impulses of her own heart…
Reprisals were common among people who were not yet Christianized, and Olga did not escape the rule, using not force, but cunning to achieve her objectives.
Terrible Reprisals against the Drevlians
Terrible reports that the first stage of the retaliation consisted in welcoming to Kiev some representatives of the Drevlians, who had come to her with the news of Igor’s execution and the proposal that she marry one of their princes. Olga sent word to them that she wished to honor them publicly and invited them to a banquet.
They were to be taken to the place, however, not on horseback or on foot, but seated in a boat that the princess’s own servants would transport. The next day, in beautiful costumes and certain that it would be easy to close the marriage contract, the emissaries were taken to court in the boat. Upon arrival, they were dumped into a large open hole in one of the palace halls, and buried alive there.
At that time, news traveled slowly. Therefore, the widow still had the possibility to summon to the capital other wealthier Drevlians, claiming that they should make an honor guard for her to their land, where, she assured, she would perform the marriage.
Having presented themselves in Kiev, they were told that there was a bathroom available for them to wash before appearing before the sovereign. It was another ambush: when the Drevlians entered the building, the princess’ servants closed the doors and set fire to it.
However, the revenge was not over yet.
Olga went to the city of the Drevlians with a small escort, announcing that she was going to visit her husband’s grave and pay him a funeral tribute, which included a banquet. The Drevlians were served large quantities of mead, and when they became intoxicated, the princess ordered her servants to slaughter them. The party became a huge funeral.
The conclusion of the reprisals took place the following year, in the city of Iskorosten, where Igor had perished. The Drevlians had isolated themselves there to escape the onslaughts of the Kiev army, and even after being besieged, they refused to submit. The sovereign then sent them a message in which she announced, in gentle terms, that she wanted only a symbolic tribute, with three doves and three sparrows per house.
Satisfied with the news, the Drevlians collected the birds and sent them to the princess with their greetings. However, the request had a singular purpose: Olga ordered her soldiers to tie pieces of sulfur wrapped in wicks of cloth to their legs, and when night fell, she ordered that the wicks be lit and the birds released. When they returned to the dovecotes, marquees and eaves of the houses, and landed on their nests, the whole city was ablaze.
Great in spirit, intrepid in action
Reading these episodes, one would think that Olga was a tyrant and considered as such by her subjects. However, historical records prove otherwise. This is how an author comments on the sovereign’s return to the capital after her incursion into Drevlian lands: “She was received by the people, happy to see her again, with as much joy as admiration, being surrounded by a popularity that was based on reason […] On this occasion, she could hear both the men of war and the friends of peace calling her the glorious great princess.
During her years at the head of Rus of Kiev, Saint Olga proved to be “great of spirit, strong of character, intelligent in counsel, intrepid in action.”
However, Olga also felt a growing emptiness inside her. The sharpness of her discernment made clear to her the existence of a higher, more powerful and influential world, to which she had to submit.
The princess’ discerning eye turned with growing interest to the innovative religious practices of some of her subjects: the Christians, who enjoyed freedom in the principality and even had a church where they gathered for celebrations.
Attracted by the power of the Gospel
During the 10th century, the Christian Faith was gradually penetrating Rus of Kiev, thanks to missionaries from Byzantium and the neighboring Slavic territories once evangelized by St. Cyril and St. Methodius.
Alone in the great hall of her residence, the princess reflected, seated on a stone throne. Absorbed, she gazed at an indefinite point in the direction of the fireplace, whose crackling was muffled from time to time by the movements of the servants in the adjoining corridors and rooms.
At a certain moment, they announced the arrival of the priest she had summoned for a private interview. The princess received him politely and began her interrogation. First, she wanted to know where he lived, what he did for a living, and what his possessions were. The priest answered everything with serenity and firmness, leaving the questioner disconcerted with certain statements, which distilled the perfumes of Christian conduct: self-denial in favor of one’s neighbor, detachment from worldly goods, moral integrity.
In order to test the submission of the adherents of the new religion to the power of the State, she asked:
– What would you do, if I drove you out of Kiev?
– I would obey you, and leave to find another place where there were my brothers, to continue my mission of teaching and sanctifying.
– Brothers? Who are your brothers? – she asked, surprised.
– They are all the children of God, that is, all the baptized. As a priest, I am willing to give my life for the eternal salvation of just one of them, if necessary.
– And when one of them offends you? – replied the princess, perplexed.
She supposed that the Gospel was based on the famous law of retribution, by which the retaliation had to be equivalent to the offense received, so she could not contain an exclamation of amazement when the priest clarified:
– If the offense strikes only my person and not the honor of God, I forgive him. Our Divine Savior preached: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who mistreat and persecute you. He who loves only those who love him does nothing extraordinary, and we must be perfect as God is.”
St Olga leaves left Kiev in search of Wisdom
Although these truths bothered her mentality, the princess was eager to know more. News had already reached her ears about the courage of the baptized, who, out of fidelity to Christ, declared they preferred death to offering a sacrifice to the gods. She admired this fortitude of spirit, but she was puzzled: how could self-sacrificing men so full of gentleness, able to bend over backwards to do good to their neighbour, and willing to suffer without murmuring, be so inflexible in their ideas, so courageous as to live and proclaim openly a doctrine opposed to the prevailing customs, exposing themselves to laughter, hatred and persecution?
Drawing a beautiful analogy between the Slavic princess and the Queen of Sheba, an ancient author writes that the former left Ethiopia to listen to the wisdom of a man, while the latter once set out from Rus of Kiev in search of Divine Wisdom. This was around 955, when Olga went to Constantinople to be baptized, publicly embracing the Christian way of life.
Dawn of the Conversion of the Russian People
It seems that in the capital of the Byzantine Empire, St. Olga visited several churches, including that of the Holy Apostles, where she was able to venerate the remains of St. Andrew. According to tradition, Peter’s brother visited the Kiev region and blessed it, prophesying that a city would arise there in which God would be served.
Upon returning to Kiev, St. Olga tried to convert her son Sviatoslav to the true Faith, but he refused, claiming that the people would mock him if he embraced a belief different from the general customs of the nation.
It is said that when he had already taken over the government of Rus, his mother often tried to convince him, telling him: “My son, I have known Wisdom, and I am happy about it. If you want to know it, you will be happy too.” And, as if he were obstinate in his paganism, she reminded him that, since he was the head of the people, he should not worry about human respect: “If you are baptized, everyone will do the same.”
But the fulfillment of the great desire that consumed her, to see the Russian nation in the arms of the Holy Church, would be reserved for others…
On July 11, 969, being almost eighty years old, Saint Olga crossed the threshold of eternity, having ordered that at her death, the traditional pagan funeral honors should not be promoted, because she wanted the last rites over her body to be the Sacraments and blessings of the Holy Church.
By Sr. Isabel Lays Gonçalves de Sousa, EP.
Text excerpted, with adaptations, from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, n. 211, July 2019.
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier.
