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SAINT OLGA OF KIEV |
| St. Olga is also known as St. Elena. Olga was her name given at birth and she was given the
Christian name Elena (Helen) when she was baptised by Patriarch Polyeuctus in Constantinople.
She did much to evangelize Russia. Saint Princess Olga reposed in the Lord in 969.
Married in 903 to Prince Igor I of Kiev, Russia, she was a cruel and barbarous woman (she
scalded her husband's murderers to death in 945 and murdered hundreds of their followers). Ruled
Kiev after Igor's assassination in 945 and was baptized at Constantinople in 957. She then
requested Emperor Otto I to send missionaries to Kiev. Although St. Adalbert of Magdeburg was
sent and the queen exerted great efforts the mission proved a failure as did her attempts
to convert her son, Svyatoslav.Christianity was introduced
however by her grandson St. Vladimir.
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She is a grandmother of Saint
Vladimir, great-grandmother of Saints Boris and Gleb.
Removal of the empire's capital from Rome to Constantinople, the "second Rome," in 330 greatly
strengthened the temporal power of the bishop of Rome. In the Byzantine Empire the patriarch of
Constantinople remained under the political control of the Christian emperor. Cultural,
political, philosophical, and theological differences strained relations between the two cities.
Rome demanded Latin as the one ecclesiastical language, but Constantinople encouraged national
languages for the liturgy and emphasized translation of the Scriptures. In 1054 leaders of the
two bodies excommunicated each other.
One reflection of growing difficulties lay in counterclaims to pursue mission in and hold the
allegiance of border areas between the two jurisdictions. Rostislav of Great Moravia sought help
from the Emperor, who (presumably through the Patriarch) in about 862 sent two brothers,
Constantine (later called Cyril; c. 827-869) and Methodius (c. 825-884), from Constantinople to
Moravia. They provided Scriptures and liturgy in the mother tongue of each people evangelized.
They also trained others in their methods--a major factor in winning Bulgaria.
Constantinople's greatest mission outreach was to areas known as Kievan Rus that later became
Russia. Christianity was apparently introduced into Kievan Rus by Greek missionaries from
Byzantium in the 9th century. An organized Christian community is known to have existed at Kiev
as early as the first half of the 10th century, and in 957 Olga, the regent of Kiev, was
baptized in Constantinople. Undoubtedly influenced by his Christian grandmother and by a
proposed marriage alliance with the Byzantine imperial family, Olga's grandson Vladimir I (c.956-1015) prince of Kiev, from among several options, chose the Byzantine rite. Baptized in 988,
he led the Kievans to Christianity. His son Yaroslav encouraged translations and built
monasteries. |
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