The Beauty Regent Kiev, Saint Olga / Helga / Yelena
Olga and Christianity:
She was the first Rus' ruler to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or in 957. The ceremonies of her formal reception in Constantinople were minutely described by Emperor Constantine VII in his book De Ceremoniis.
Following her baptism she took the Christian name Yelena, after the
reigning Empress Helena Lekapena. The Slavonic chronicles add
apocryphal details to the account of her baptism, such as the story how
she charmed and "outwitted" Constantine and how she spurned his
matrimonial proposals. In truth, at the time of her baptism, Olga was
an old woman, while Constantine had a wife.
Olga was one of the first people of Rus' to be proclaimed a saint, for her efforts to spread the Christian religion in the country. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Orthodox Church calls St. Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". However, she failed to convert [her son] Svyatoslav, and it was left to her grandson and pupil Vladimir I to make Christianity the lasting state religion. During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod together with her grandsons. She died soon after the city's siege by the Pechenegs in 969.
As a Pagan Ruler the widow Olga was ruthless:
Princess Olga was the wife of Igor of Kiev, who was killed by the
Drevlians. Upon her husband's death, their son, Svyatoslav, was three
years old, making Olga the official ruler of Kievan Rus until he
reached adulthood. The Drevlians wanted Olga to marry their Prince Mal,
making him the ruler of Kievan Rus, but Olga was determined to remain
in power and preserve it for her son.
The Drevlians sent twenty
of their best men to convince Olga to marry their Prince Mal and give
up her rule of Kievan Rus. She had them buried alive. Then she sent
word to Prince Mal that she accepts the proposal, but requires their
most distinguished men to accompany her on the journey in order for her
people to accept the offer of marriage. The Drevlians sent their best
men who governed their land. Upon their arrival, she offered them a
warm welcome and an invitation to clean up after their long journey in
abathouse. After they entered, she locked the doors and set fire to the
building, burning them alive.
With the best and wisest men out
of the way, she planned to destroy the remaining Drevlians. She invited
them to a funeral feast so she could mourn over her husband's grave,
where her servants waited on them. After the Drevlians were drunk,
Olga's soldiers killed over 5,000 of them. She returned to Kiev and
prepared an army to attack the survivors. The Drevlians begged for
mercy and offered to pay for their freedom with honey and furs. She
asked for threepigeons and three sparrows from each house, since she
did not want to burden the villagers any further after the siege. They
were happy to comply with such a reasonable request.
Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and
ordered them to attach by thread to each pigeon and sparrow a piece of
sulfur bound with small pieces of cloth. When night fell, Olga bade her
soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows. So the birds flew to
their nests, the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the
eaves. The dove-cotes, the coops, the porches, and the haymows were set
on fire. There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was
impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught on
fire at once. The people fled from the city, and Olga ordered her
soldiers to catch them. Thus she took the city and burned it, and
captured the elders of the city. Some of the other captives she killed,
while some she gave to others as slaves to her followers. The remnant
she left to pay tribute.
see: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=427
Grand Prince Vladimir I Sviatoslavich the Great Saint
Vladimir's Pagan Leadership: Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir
had remained a thoroughgoing pagan, taking eight hundred concubines
(besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to
gods. He may have attempted to reform Slavicpaganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun
, as a supreme deity. "Although Christianity in Kiev existed before
Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven
wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous
rites involving human sacrifice."
St. Vladimir I, 956-1015, Grandson of St. Olga and illegitimate son of Sviastoslav, grand duke of Kiev, and his
mistress, Malushka, he was given Novgorod to rule by his father. Civil war broke out between his half-brothers Yaropolk and Oleg; Yaropolk made
himself ruler by defeating and killing Oleg, and when he captured
Novgorod, Vladimirwas forced to flee to Scandinavia in 977. Vladimir
returned with an army and captured Novgorod and defeated and slew
Yaropolk at Rodno in 980; Vladimir was now sole ruler of Russia,
notorious for his barbarism and immorality. After his conquest of
Kherson in the Crimea in 988, he became impressed by the progrerss of Christianity and approached Eastern Emperor Basil II about marrying the emperor's daughter Ann. He was converted, reformed his life and married Anne. On his return to Kiev, he invited Greek missionaries
to Russia, let his people to Christianity, borrowed canonical feacures
from the West and built schools and churches. His later years were troubled by rebellions led by the
sons of his first marriages, although two sons by Anne, SS Romanus and
David became martyrs. In 1014 he was obliged to march against his
rebellious son Yaroslav in Novgorod, fell ill on the way and died at
Beresyx, Russia. He is patron of the Russian Catholics. Feastday July 15.
see: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=434
Significance and legacy
One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.
His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Ukrainian and Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as
Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the
Fair Sun. With him the
Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.
(Wikipieia)
Ancestral Chain: Ancestral Quest relationship calculator shows Saint Olga as our grandmother 100 times as 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th and 39th and 40th great grandmother.
As 33rd great-grandmother Saint Olga "The Beauty Regent" b.890, Sviatoslav Warrior I Kiev b.915, Saint Vladimir I Grand Duke Kyiv b.956, Yaroslav 'the Wise' Grand Prince of Rus b.978, Anne Princess of Kiev b.1024, Hugh Magnus "the great" Crepi / Count of Vermandois b.1057, (Isabel) Elizabeth DE VERMANDOIS Countess b.1081, Willaim III DE WARREN (WARENNE) Earl of Surrey b.1118, Lady Isabel 4th Countess Surrey DE WARENNE b.1137, William, 6th Earl Of Surrey DE WARENNE b.1155, John 7th Earl of Surrey DE WARENNE b.1231, Eleanor PLANTAGENET b.1244, Henry, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick DE PERCY b.1273, Henry, 2nd Baron Percy DE PERCY b.1299, Maude DE PERCY b.1345, Earl-Baron-Lord Ralph DE NEVILLE 1st Earl of Westmoreland, 4th Lord of Raby b.1364, Lady Eleanor NEVILLE Countess of Northumberland b.1398, Henry 3rd Earl Of Northumberland PERCY b.1421, Henry PERCY 4th Earl of Northumberland b. 1449, Eleanor (Alianore) PERCY Duchess of Buckingham b.1474, Lady Catherine STAFFORD Countess of Westmorland b.1499, Lady Margaret NEVILLE b.1520, George GARDNER b.1535, Sir Thomas GARDNER b.1565, Rachel GARDNER Immigrant b.1608, Thomas NOBLE Immigrant b.1632, Sgt. Luke NOBLE b.1675, Samuel NOBLE b.1722, Lydia NOBLE b.1768, Horace Datus ENSIGN b.1797, Martin Luther ENSIGN b.1831, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR.
