Friday, July 11, 2025

It is the 11th of July 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Fridays sometimes bring the most interesting topics- why? They are usually the last in a series of shows I’m working on, and I tend to say “why not?” More often, perhaps to topics that are a little harder? Stranger? More obscure? And this week we’ve been in the Dark Ages (sorry, “middle”… wait… “medieval”… you get it)- some Peter the Hermit and this weekend- ooh, la la… one of THE figures of the whole Middle Ages… so for today’s show… a post-vacation Friday show and you get to hear all about St. Olga of Kiev, the Viking Warrior Princess who converted a nation (!).

St. Olga was born around 900 in modern-day Russia, near Moscow, but when Russia was a territory led by various confederations of tribes, from Slavic and Viking to Eastern Huns and the like, she ruled the vast territory.

The Rurikids, under Rurik, would evolve into the first “Russian” monarchs and eventually Christian monarchs… but our story isn’t there quite yet.

Rurik, a descendant of Varangian Vikings, would marry off his son, Igor, to another Varangian: Olga. We know little of her background- like most in the region, she was a descendant of Vikings and was from somewhere near modern-day Moscow.

Upon Rurik’s death, Igor was too young to rule, and so Oleg, Rurik’s kinsman, ruled in his place. Oleg moved the capital from Novgorod to Kyiv, setting up the “Kievan Rus” as the progenitor of Modern Russia. In subduing other tribes, he would request tribute. Fair enough, he dies in the early 900s for young Igor and his child bride, Olga, to rule.  

Until Igor gets involved with one of the more, well… this next section might sound more Game of Thrones than church history, but stick with me here.

Igor is gone to collect tribute from another tribe descendants of Vikings in the region- one thing leads to another, and Igor is not given what he is owed, and instead…let’s hear the chronicler say: 

“They had bent down two birch trees to the prince’s feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince’s body apart.”

Ouch. And so they (the Drevlians) try to woo Olga. She says she can’t marry into the tribe, but she’d like to give them a nice send-off in the morning. As the men get into their boats, they are lifted and carried to Olga and then tipped and dropped into a moat. A second group of Drevlians was invited to visit Kiev, and Olga, as they prepared for a state dinner, they were all murdered. Lastly, Olga had her troops go out to the Drevlian capital and ask for a tribute of only three pigeons and sparrows per house. She then had her men attach sulfur-soaked cloths to the birds, light them on fire, and send them back home. The largely wooden capital burned.

So… why is she “St. Olga”? She ruled in place of her deceased husband and their young son. The region of the Rus’ was seen as key for the Christian west, not only for conversions and expansion of the church but because this would be a key piece to determine territorial sovereignty for Christians and muslims.

During the reign of Olga, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII decided that he would take her hand in marriage, thus uniting the Byzantine and (later) Russian empires. Having been instructed about the faith, Olga asked to be baptized (some texts note she was baptized by Constantine- this seems unlikely- more likely he was her sponsor). And having been baptized, she then rebuffed the emperor, stating that as her spiritual father, they could never be married. It seems she was interested in Christianity but not in submitting herself and the Rus to the Byzantines. She would construct churches but didn’t take the ruthless approach to statecraft that she did to the faith. In fact, her son, Sviatoslav, would eventually rule but not adopt his mother's Christianity.

It was Olga’s grandson- Sviatoslav’s son- Vladimir Sviatoslavich (son of Sviatoslav), who was better known as Vladimir the Great, who would himself be baptized and marry the sister of the Byzantine Emperor, ushering in the era of the Russian Catholic and Orthodox churches. But it began with the Viking warrior princess: Olga, the great saint who helped bring the faith to the Russians- her feast day, celebrated today amongst the Orthodox especially, is the 11th of July.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and from Psalm 25:

¹ In you, Lord my God,

I put my trust.

² I trust in you;

do not let me be put to shame,

nor let my enemies triumph over me.

³ No one who hopes in you

will ever be put to shame,

but shame will come on those

who are treacherous without cause.

⁴ Show me your ways, Lord,

teach me your paths.

⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

⁶ Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you, Lord, are good.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 11th of July 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who recognizes only one warrior princess: Xena, but dares you to wonder- “princess of what,” he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who just went down a rabbit hole- it turns out Xena’s honorifics were symbolic and she had no royal lineage… I’m  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.