Princess olga of kiev biography of rory

Even though it was her grandson Vladimir who adopted Christianity and made it the state religion, [ 7 ] she was the first ruler to be baptized. Olga is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church with the epithet " Equal to the Apostles ". Her feast day is 11 July. Igor was the son and heir of Rurikfounder of the Rurik dynasty. After his father's death, Igor was under the guardianship of Olegwho had consolidated power in the region, conquering neighboring tribes and establishing a capital in Kiev.

The Drevlians were a neighboring tribe with which the growing Kievan Rus' empire had a complex relationship. The Drevlians had joined Kievan Rus' in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and paid tribute to Igor's predecessors. They stopped paying tribute upon Oleg's death and instead gave money to a local warlord. InIgor set out to the Drevlian capital, Iskorostento force the tribe to pay tribute to Kievan Rus'.

As Igor and his army rode home, however, he decided the payment was not enough and returned, with only a small escort, seeking more tribute. Upon his arrival in their territory, the Drevlians murdered Igor. According to the Byzantine chronicler Leo the DeaconIgor's death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was "captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two.

Sullivan has suggested that Leo may have invented this sensationalist version of Igor's death, taking inspiration from Diodorus Siculus ' account of a similar killing method used by the robber Siniswho lived near the Isthmus of Corinth and was killed by Theseus. According to archeologist Sergei Beletsky, Knyaginya Olga, like all the other rulers before Vladimir the Greatwas also using the princess olga of kiev biography of rory as her personal symbol.

After Igor's death at the hands of the Drevlians, Olga assumed the throne because her three-year-old son Sviatoslav was too young to rule. The Drevlians, emboldened by their success in ambushing and killing the king, sent a messenger to Olga proposing that she marry his murderer, Prince Mal. Twenty Drevlian negotiators boated to Kiev to pass along their king's message and to ensure Olga's compliance.

They arrived in her court and told the queen why they were in Kiev: "to report that they had slain her husband Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, "We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat.

When the Drevlians returned the next day, they waited outside Olga's court to receive the honor she had promised. When they repeated the words she had told them to say, the people of Kiev rose up, carrying the Drevlians in their boat. The ambassadors believed this was a great honor as if they were being carried by palanquin. The people brought them into the court where they were dropped into a trench that had been dug the day before under Olga's orders where the ambassadors were buried alive.

It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and "inquired whether they found the honor to their taste. Olga then sent a message to the Drevlians that they should send "their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor. When the Drevlians entered the bathhouse, Olga had it set on fire from the doors, so that all the Drevlians within burned to death.

Olga sent another message to the Drevlians, this time ordering them to "prepare great quantities of mead in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him. The Drevlians sat down to join them and began to drink heavily. When the Drevlians were drunk, she ordered her followers to kill them, "and went about herself egging on her retinue to the massacre of the Drevlians.

The initial conflict between the armies of the two nations went very well for the forces of Kievan Rus', who won the battle handily and drove the survivors back into their cities. Olga then led her army to Iskorosten what is today Korostenthe city where her husband had been slain, and laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for a year without success when Olga thought of a plan to trick the Drevlians.

She sent them a message: "Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather die of hunger, without submitting to tribute. The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband.

Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: "Give me three pigeons Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds.

They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once. She left the remnant to pay tribute. Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus' with the support of the army and her people.

She changed the system of tribute gathering poliudie in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev inand saved the power of the throne for her son. After her dramatic subjugation of the Drevlians, the Primary Chronicle recounts how Olga "passed through the land of Dereva, accompanied by her son and her retinue, establishing laws and tribute.

Her trading posts and hunting-reserves are there still. She established hunting grounds, boundary posts, towns, and trading-posts across the empire. Olga's work helped to centralize state rule with these trade centers, called pogostiwhich served as administrative centers in addition to their mercantile roles. Olga's network of pogosti would prove important in the ethnic and cultural unification of the Rus' people, and her border posts began the establishment of national boundaries for the kingdom.

During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons. The Book of Ceremonies is concerned with etiquette at the Byzantine imperial court, describing all the formalities during ceremonies such as embassies, receptions and dinners, and uses various practical examples to illustrate established protocol.

John Skylitzes recorded only a very brief passage in chapter 11, section 6 of his Synopsis of Histories : Olga 'came to Constantinople after her husband died. She was baptized and she demonstrated fervent devotion, then she went back home. Once in Constantinople, Olga converted to Christianity with the assistance of the Emperor and the Patriarch Polyeuctus.

Princess olga of kiev biography of rory: TIL after Olga of

While the Primary Chronicle does not divulge Olga's motivation for her visit or conversion, it does go into great detail on the conversion process, in which she was baptized and instructed in the ways of Christianity. While the Primary Chronicle notes that Olga was christened with the name "Helena" after the ancient Saint Helena the mother of Constantine the GreatJonathan Shepard argues that Olga's baptismal name comes from the contemporary emperor's wife, Helena.

While the Chronicle explains Constantine's desire to take Olga as his wife as stemming from the fact that she was "fair of countenance and wise as well," marrying Olga could certainly have helped him gain power over Rus'. The Chronicle recounts that Olga asked the emperor to baptize her knowing that his baptismal sponsorship, by the rules of spiritual kinship, would make marriage between them a kind of spiritual incest.

Princess olga of kiev biography of rory: Explore Authentic, Princess Olga Of Kiev

After the baptism, when Constantine repeated his marriage proposal, Olga answered that she could not marry him since church law forbade a goddaughter to marry her godfather. Francis Butler argues that the story of the proposal was a literary embellishment, describing an event that is highly unlikely to have ever actually occurred. In addition to uncertainty over the truth of the Chronicle 's telling of events in Constantinople, there is controversy over the details of her conversion to Christianity.

For they hated knowledge and had no fear of Jehovah. They have listened to none of my counsel, but have despised all my reproof. This passage highlights the hostility to Christianity in Kievan Russia in the 10th century. In the Chronicle, Sviatoslav declares that his followers would "laugh" at him if he accepted Christianity. While Olga tried to convince her son that his followers would follow her example if they converted, her efforts were in vain.

However, her son agreed not to persecute those in his kingdom who converted, which marked a crucial turning point for Christianity in the area. Despite her people's resistance to Christianity, Olga built churches in Kiev, Pskov and elsewhere. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lying, commenting that their trick would not be revealed later.

Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first Archbishop of Magdeburg, St. Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to Kievan Russia Rusciae as a simple bishop, but was expelled by the pagan allies of Sviatoslav I. Similar accounts are repeated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim. According to the Chronicle, Olga died of the disease inshortly after the siege of the city by the Pechenegs.

When Sviatoslav announced that he intended to move his throne to the Danube region, the seriously ill Olga persuaded him to stay with her during her last days. After just three days, she died and her family and everyone in Kievan Russia mourned her:. But Olga replied, "You see my weakness. Why do you want to turn away from me? So she asked him to stay with her, first to bury her and then to go wherever he would.

Three days later Olga died.

Princess olga of kiev biography of rory: occupied the throne of Kiev

Her son mourned her with great grief, as did her grandchildren and all the people. So they took her outside and buried her in her grave. Olga had given orders not to hold a funeral feast for her, because she had a priest who performed the last rites on the holy princess. Although he disapproved of his mother's Christian tradition, Sviatoslav respected Olga's request that her priest, Gregory, give her a Christian funeral, without a pagan burial ritual.

Her tomb remained in Kiev for more than two centuries, but was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatar armies of Batu Han in At the time of his death, it seemed that Olga's attempt to make her country a Christian land had been a failure. However, Olga's Christianisation mission would be completed by her grandson Vladimir I, who officially adopted Christianity in The chronicle of the times highlights Olga's holiness, in contrast to the pagans around her during her lifetime, and the significance of her decision to convert to Christianity:.

Olga was the forerunner of the Christian earth, just as spring day precedes the sun and dawn precedes day. For she shone like the moon at night and shone among the infidels like a pearl in the mire, since men were defiled and had not yet purified themselves of their sin through holy baptism. But she herself was cleansed by this sacred purification She was the first person in Kievan Russia to enter the Kingdom of God, and since her death faith in God has spread.

Inalmost years after her death inthe Russian Orthodox Church named Olga a saint. She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Olga's feast day is 11 July, the day of her death. According to her own biography, she is the patroness of widows and converts. As an important figure in the history of Christianity, the image of Olga as a saint has persisted.

But questions have been asked about Olga as a historical figure and as a character in the Chronicle of Times Past. The historical characterization of Olga as a vengeful princess, superimposed over her consideration within the Orthodox tradition as a saint, has produced a variety of modern interpretations of her story. Scholars tend to be more conservative with their interpretations, focusing on what the Chronicle of the Olden Times says explicitly: Olga's role in the spread of Christianity in Eastern Europe and Russia.

These texts generally focus on Olga's role as advisor to her son, whose decision not to persecute Christians in Kievan Russia was a pivotal moment in the religious history of Russia and its neighbours. Scholarly research on her life tends not to rely on narrative twisting and turning her story, instead focusing on extracting historical facts from the story.

Princess olga of kiev biography of rory: Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was

Modern publications, however, have focused on her as a historical figure. Journalists have written articles with headlines ranging from "Saint Olga of Kiev is the best warrior princess you've never met" to "Meet the murderous Viking princess who brought faith to Eastern Europe". These texts, written for a wider audience, tend to focus on exploring her life as a kind of historical drama.

Her Viking heritage is always mentioned and often used as an explanation for her fiery spirit and military achievements. The authors focus on the most dramatic details of her story: her murder of the two groups of Drevlen ambassadors, her cunning deception of the Drevlen ruler, and her ultimate conquest of her people. A number of sources make her a proto-feminist figure, a woman who did not allow herself to lose her leadership role to contemporaries who believed that only men could have leadership roles in society.

Although a number of these contemporary sources refer to Olga as a "warrior princess", there is little evidence to suggest that she actually participated in fighting and killing enemies. Based on historical precedent, it is more likely that she was a commander of troops, a kind of general or commander-in-chief, rather than a warrior of special skill.

However, these claims have made their way into the public imagination, as evidenced by the appropriation of her image in the heavy-metal-esque scene. This duality of his character - on the one hand a revered saint, on the other a bloody commander of troops - made him an attractive figure to subversive artists. In some cases, her image has been captured in the heavy metal scene, notably as a muse and on the cover of A Perfect Absolution, a concept album by French band Gorod about Olga from Kiev.

Dafato is a non-profit website that aims to record and present historical events without bias. The continuous and uninterrupted operation of the site relies on donations from generous readers like you. Also read, Biographies Caterina Sforza. Also read, Biographies Chuck Yeager. Olga's most profound act was her conversion to Christianity in or in Constantinople.

This pivotal moment laid the foundation for the eventual adoption of Eastern Orthodoxy as the state religion under her grandson, Vladimir the Great. Kiev Rus flourished under Olga's wise and decisive leadership. She passed away inrevered as a visionary ruler. Her feast day is celebrated on July 11th, and countless Russian girls bear her name in her honor.

Throughout history, Olga's legacy has inspired and captivated. As a powerful and complex figure, she embodies both the brutality and brilliance of her era, leaving an enduring mark on the political, religious, and economic fabric of Kievan Rus. Olga Princess of Kyiv Date of Birth: