Biography Saint Olga

Olga’s baptism was marked by the prophetic words of the Patriarch, who baptized her: “You are blessed in the Russian wives, for you left the darkness and loved the light. The sons of Russians will be glorified to the last kind! Like her heavenly patroness, Olga became the equal apostral preacher of Christianity in the vast expanses of the Russian land.

There are many chronological inaccuracies and riddles in the annalistic testimonies of it, but there are hardly doubts about the reliability of most of the facts of her life, conveyed to our time by grateful descendants of the Holy Princess - the organizer of the Russian land. Let us turn to the narrative of her life. The name of the future enlightener of Rus' and her homeland is the oldest of the annals - “The Tale of Bygone Years” calls the marriage of Kyiv Prince Igor in the description of the marriage of Kiev: “And they brought him a wife from Pskov by the name of Olga.” The Joachim's chronicle clarifies that it belonged to the family of the princes of the Izborski - one of the Old Russian princely dynasties.

The wife of Igor was called the Varangian name Helg, in Russian pronunciation - Olga Volga. Tradition calls Olga's homeland the village of Baby, near Pskov, up the Veliky River. The Life of St. Olga tells that here the first meeting with her future spouse took place here.

The young prince hunted “in the Pskov” region and, wanting to move across the Great River, saw “a certain sailing in the boat” and called him to the shore. Saying away from the shore in a boat, the prince found that a girl of amazing beauty was lucky. Igor became inflamed to her with lust and began to bow her to sin. The carrier was not only beautiful, but chaste and smart.

She had Igor, reminding him of the princely dignity of the ruler and the Judge, which should be a “bright example of good deeds” for his filed. Igor broke up with her, keeping her words and a beautiful image in his memory. When the time came to choose the bride, the most beautiful girls of the principalities were collected in Kyiv. But none of them came to his heart. And then he recalled Olga's "marvelous in the girls" and sent after her the relative of his prince Oleg.

So Olga became the wife of Prince Igor, the great Russian princess. After marriage, Igor went on a trip to the Greeks, and returned from him by his father: Svyatoslav’s son was born. Soon Igor was killed by the Drevlyans. Fearing revenge for the murder of the Kyiv prince, the Drevlyans sent ambassadors to Princess Olga, inviting her to marry with her ruler Small. Olga pretended to agree.

With cunning, she lured two Drevlyan embassies in Kyiv, betraying them with a painful death: the first was buried alive “in the princely court”, the second was burned in the bathhouse. After that, five thousand husbands of the Drevlyanski were killed by Olga soldiers on Trizn on Igor near the walls of the Drevlyansk capital of the Iskorosty. The next year, Olga again came up with the army to the Ikhostostost.

The city was burned with the help of birds, at the feet of which a burning pacli was tied. The surviving Drevlyans were captivated and sold into slavery. Along with this, the annals are full of evidence of its relentless “walks” in Russian land in order to build the country's political and economic life. She achieved the strengthening of the power of the Kyiv Grand Duke, centralized public administration using the Pogosts system.

The chronicle notes that she and her son and squad passed along the Drevlyansk land, “setting tribute and fragments,” noting the villages and lands and places of hunting, which are subject to inclusion in the Kyiv grand -ducal possessions. She went to Novgorod, arranging graveyards along the Mstast and Luga rivers. Pogosts from the word “guest” - the merchant became the support of the princely power, the centers of the ethnic and cultural unification of the Russian people.

Life tells about Olga’s works: “And Princess Olga ruled by the regions of Russian land not as a woman, but as a strong and rational husband, firmly holding power in her hands and courageously defending herself from enemies. And she was terrible for the latter. At the same time, Olga, merciful to her liking, was generously poor, miserable and poor; Fair requests soon reached her heart, and she quickly fulfilled them with all this, Olga connected an abstract and chaste life, she did not want to marry a second time, but was in pure widowhood, observing his princely power to her son.

When the latter matured, she handed him all the affairs of the board, and herself, eliminating the rumor and care, lived outside the concerns, indulging in the affairs of benefactor. ” Rus' grew and strengthened. Cities surrounded by stone and oak walls were built. The princess herself lived behind the reliable walls of Vyshgorod, surrounded by a faithful squad. Two -thirds of the gathered tribute, according to the chronicle, she put at the disposal of the Kyiv evening, the third part went “to Olga, to Vyshgorod” to the military structure.

Olga dates back to the establishment of the first state borders of Kievan Rus. The heroic outposts, naked in epics, guarded the peaceful life of the Kievites from the nomads of the Great Steppe, from attacks from the West. Alien rushed to the Gardarik "Country of Cities", as they called Rus', with goods.Scandinavians, the Germans willingly entered the Russian army.

Rus' became a great power. As a wise ruler, Olga saw on the example of the Byzantine Empire that there are not enough worries only about state and economic life. It was necessary to engage in the arrangement of the religious, spiritual life of the people. Without knowing the law of Christian, she lived a clean and chaste life, and she wanted to be a Christian by her free will, with cordial eyes the path of knowledge of God found and went without hesitation.

” The Rev. Nestor the chronicler tells: "Blessed Olga from an early age was looking for wisdom, which was the best in this light, and found a multi -ive pearl - Christ." Having made his choice, Grand Duchess Olga, entrusting Kyiv to the grown up son, goes with a large fleet to Constantinople. Old Russian chroniclers will call this act of Olga “walking”, it combined a religious pilgrimage, a diplomatic mission, and a demonstration of the military power of Rus'.

According to the chronicle, in Constantinople Olga decides to become a Christian. The sacrament of baptism was made by the Patriarch of the Feophilakt, and the receiver was the emperor Konstantin Bagryanorod -, who left in his essay “On the Ceremities of the Byzantine Court” a detailed description of the ceremonies during the stay of Olga in Constantinople.

At one of the tricks of the Russian princess, a gold, decorated with precious stones, a dish was brought. Olga donated him to the sacristy of St. Sophia, where he saw him and described at the beginning of the 13th century the Russian diplomat Dobrynya Yadrekovich, later Archbishop of Novgorod Anthony: “The dish of the Grand of Zlata Olga Russian, when she took tribute, going to Tsargrad: in the dish of Olgin, the stone of dragies, Christ was written on the same stones.” The Patriarch blessed the newly baptized Russian princess with a cross carved from a solid piece of the life -giving tree of the Lord.

On the cross there was an inscription: "Released the Russian land by the Holy Cross, Olga, a noble princess, accepted him." Olga returned to Kyiv with icons, liturgical books - her apostolic ministry began. She erected the temple in the name of St. Nicholas over the grave of Askold-the first Kyiv prince-Christian and many Kyivans turned to Christ. With a sermon of faith, the princess went to the north.

In the Kyiv and Pskov lands, in remote weights, at the crossroads of roads, she erected crosses, destroying pagan idols. Saint Olga marked the beginning of special veneration in Rus' of the Blessed Trinity. From century to century, a story was transmitted about a vision that was near the Great River, not far from her native village. She saw that “three bully rays” were leaving the East from the East.

Turning to her companions, the former witnesses of visions, Olga said prophetically: “May it be known to you that the Church will be the Church in this place in the name of the Most Holy and Life -giving Trinity and there will be a great and glorious city abundant by everyone.” In this place, Olga erected a cross and founded the temple in the name of the Holy Trinity.

He became the main cathedral of Pskov - the glorious city of Russian, which has since been called the "House of the Holy Trinity." The mysterious ways of spiritual succession after four centuries, this veneration was transmitted to the Monk Sergius of Radonezh. This day was celebrated in the Russian Church as a special holiday. The main shrine of the temple was the cross received by Olga at baptism in Constantinople.

The temple, built by Olga, burned down in the year, and in his place Yaroslav wise erected the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Irina, and the shrines of the Sofia Olgin of the Temple transferred the standing stone temple of St. Sophia of Kyiv, laid down in the year and consecrated for about a year. After the conquest of Kyiv by the Lithuanians, Olgin Cross was stolen from the Sofia Cathedral and taken out by Catholics to Lublin.

His further fate is unknown to us. The apostolic works of the princesses met the secret and open resistance of the Gentiles. Among the boyars and warriors in Kyiv there were many people who, according to the chroniclers, “hated wisdom,” like the Holy Olga, who built her temples. The zealots of pagan antiquity lifted their heads more bolder, looking hopefully at the growing Svyatoslav, who resolutely rejected his mother’s persuasion to adopt Christianity.

Olga often said: “My son, I knew God and rejoice; So you, if you know, will also begin to rejoice. ” He, without listening to this, said: “How can I want to change one faith? My warriors will laugh this! He, without listening to his mother, lived according to pagan customs, not knowing that if anyone does not listen to his mother, he would fall into trouble, as it is said: "If someone is a father or mother, he will not listen, then death will accept." He was also angry with his mother, but Olga loved her son Svyatoslav when she said: “May there be the will of God.

If God wants to have mercy on my descendants and the Russian land, let them turn them to the hearts to turn to God, as it was granted to me. ” And so, so, she prayed for her son and for his people all days and nights, taking care of her son until his mature. ”Despite the success of her trip to Constantinople, Olga could not persuade the emperor to an agreement on two important issues: on the Dinastic marriage of Svyatoslav with the Byzantine princess and the conditions for the restoration of the Metropolis that existed under Askold in Kyiv.

Therefore, Saint Olga turns eyes to the West - the church was one at that time. The Russian princess could hardly know about the theological differences of the Greek and Latin creed. In the year, the German chronicler writes: "The ambassadors of Elena, Queen of Russov, who is baptized in Constantinople, came to the king, and asked to devote to the bishop and priests for this people." King Otton, the future founder of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, responded to Olga's request.

A year later, the Russian bishop was placed by Libecius, from the brethren of the Monastery of St. Alban in Mainz, but he soon died on March 15. G. Dalbert Trirsky was dedicated to his place, whom Otton, “generously supplied all the necessary”, finally sent to Russia. When Adalbert appeared in Kyiv in the year, he "did not have time in anything that he was sent for, and saw his efforts in vain." On the way back, “some of his companions were killed, and the bishop himself did not escape mortal danger,” the annals of the mission of Adalbert narrate.

The pagan reaction manifested so much that not only German missionaries suffered, but also some of the Kyiv Christians who were baptized with Olga. By order of Svyatoslav, the nephew of Olga Gleb was killed and some temples built by her were destroyed. Saint Olga had to come to terms with what happened and go into the affairs of personal piety, providing the pagan management Svyatoslav.