Equal-to-the-Apostles · 912
Great Princess Olga
Equal-to-the-Apostles Blessed Great Princess Olga (in Holy Baptism Helen)
New Calendar July 11 Old Calendar July 24
Why they are a saint
Saint Olga, Equal of the Apostles, was the wife of the Kievan Great Prince Igor. The struggle of Christianity with paganism under Igor and Olga, who reigned after Oleg (+ 912), entered into a new phase. Venerated as equal-to-the-apostles for spreading the Christian faith.
Life
Saint Olga was the wife of Great Prince Igor of Kiev. After Igor was murdered by the Drevlyans, she ruled in her own right, and the chronicles tell of her terrible revenge on them.
In the summer of 954, having entrusted Kiev to her young son Svyatoslav, she sailed to Constantinople. There she was baptized by Patriarch Theophylactus, with the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos as her godfather, and received the name Helen.
She reposed in 969, having lived as a Christian for fifteen years. She raised her grandson, Saint Vladimir, the future baptizer of Rus', and her tomb later stood in the Church of the Tithes in Kiev beside his. She is honoured as Equal of the Apostles.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Traditionally asked to pray for widows, early Rus’. The reason for this custom is not recorded here.
Prayer
O holy Great Princess Olga, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.