The Savage Saint: 12 Facts About Olga of Kiev

Olga of Kiev was born as early as AD 890 and as late as June 5 925 in Pskov, Russia. She was iconic for obliterating the Drevlians, a tribe that murdered her husband Igor of Kiev. Her efforts to spread Christianity through the Rus’ earned Olga veneration as the first Russian saint of the Orthodox Church, is the patron of widows and converts. Here are some facts about Olga of Kiev.

1. Her ancestry remains unclear—she is either of Bulgarian descent or the daughter of Oleg Veshchy, founder of the state of Kievan Rus.

2. She was born into a family of Varyags (Norsemen and Vikings).

3. Olga married the eventual Igor of Kiev as early as 901. Igor was the son of Novgorod Prince Rurik, founder of the Rurik Dynasty of the Russian tsars.

4. Igor was killed in 945 by Drevlians, a tribe of the Early East Slavs, over money dispute. Following her husband’s death, Olga, having full support of the Rus army, became regent of Kievan Rus in behalf of their then three-year-old son, Svyatoslav.

5. The Drevlians wanted Olga to marry their Prince Mal, which would make him the ruler of Kievan Rus. Olga, however, was determined to stay in power. The tribe sent 20 of their best men to persuade her into marrying their prince; she, however, had other plans in mind. She asked them to wait in their boats, unaware of the fact that she had a ditch dug especially for them. The next morning, all the men were buried alive.

6. Thereafter, Olga sent word to Prince Mal that she was accepting his proposal and requested to send her their best ambassadors to accompany her to land of the Drevlians. As soon as they arrived in Kievan Rus, Olga invited the distinguished men to clean up in the bathhouse. She then locked them up and set the building afire, burning the ambassadors alive.

7. Soon after killing the ambassadors, she invited Drevlians to join her in a funeral feast in memory of her deceased husband. She got her enemies drunk before ordering her men to put all of them to death. Historical accounts allege that there were more than 5,000 casualties during this act of revenge.

8. In her last effort of avenging the murdered Igor, Olga placed the Iskorosten town under siege and asked them to give her three pigeons and three sparrows as a gift. She then ordered her soldiers to attach a piece of sulfur bound in cloth on each of the birds before releasing them that night. As the pigeons and the sparrows returned to their respective cotes and nests, she burned the whole town. Every single house was engulfed in fire. Her soldiers captured those who managed to escape. She had most of them killed, while some of the lucky ones were offered as slaves to her followers.

9. Olga is known for changing the system of tribute gathering (poliudie).  It has been considered as the first legal tax system as well as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.

10. Olga converted to Christianity either in 945 or 957, the first Rus ruler to do so. She was baptized in Constantinople, taking the Christian name Yelena. She was one of the first people to bring the religion to Kievan Rus, a pagan society.

11. She died in 969, soon after the Pechenegs besieged Kievan Rus.

12. Olga was proclaimed saint in 1547 by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church for her efforts to spread Christianity in Russia. She was conferred with the title Isapóstolos, which translates to “Equal to the Apostles”.