On July 11, Orthodox Christians commemorate the memory of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga.
Saint Olga was the wife of Prince Igor I of Kiev. After his death in 945, Princess Olga ruled on behalf of her minor son Svetoslav. At that time, the Kyivan Russia were pagans, but Christianity was already known as a religion, even in Kiev and other cities of the country there were small Christian communities. Svetoslav himself remained a pagan, but did not persecute Christians.
And the princess-mother gradually began to show interest in the faith in Jesus Christ. During her visit to Constantinople in 957, Olga was received with honors by Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus and Patriarch Polyeuctus, who introduced her in detail to the Christian faith, and she was baptized with the name Elena. Ancient Russian monuments say that after that St. Olga sowed the first seeds of the Christian faith in her young grandson Vladimir and his brothers.
For 12 years, St. Olga spread the holy faith far beyond the borders of Kiev. She died on July 11, 969. Under her influence, her grandson Prince Vladimir decided to accept Christianity and in 988 baptized the entire people of Kievan Rus’, as our Prince Boris had done more than a century before.
The Kiev chronicler Nestor wrote about St. Olga: “She was a forerunner of Christianity in our land,… as the dawn before the sun, so she shone among the unbelieving people. She was the first from Russia to ascend to the kingdom of heaven.”
The miracle that occurred during the IV Ecumenical Council (451) at the relics of St. Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy (IV century), whose memory is on September 16, is also celebrated on July 11.
Same day is celebrated the memory of the Russian Athonite ascetic St. Sophrony (Sakharov, 1896-1993), founder of the monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England.
Source: BTA, Prof. Ivan Zhelev
