Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga of Kiev — July 11 / July 24 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, July 11 according to the Julian Calendar (July 24 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga of Kiev.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga of Kiev (baptized Elena) was descended from the illustrious line of Izyaslav and was the wife of Igor, Grand Prince of Kiev. After Igor’s murder in 945, she ruled as regent for her young son Sviatoslav.

Olga governed the Kievan Rus with great wisdom, organizing the territory and establishing a just administration. She was the first Rus ruler to embrace Christianity, traveling to Constantinople around 957, where she was baptized by the Patriarch of Constantinople, with Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos himself serving as her godfather.

Upon her baptism she received the name Elena, after Saint Helen the Equal-to-the-Apostles, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. Emperor Constantine tried to persuade her to remain in Constantinople, but Olga wisely returned to Rus.

Returning to Kiev, Olga worked to spread the Christian faith throughout the land, building churches and promoting the Gospel. Though her son Sviatoslav remained pagan, she raised her grandson Vladimir in the Christian faith, and it was Vladimir who later baptized all of Rus in 988.

The holy princess reposed in the Lord in 969. Her grandson Saint Vladimir had her relics translated to the Church of the Tithes, where they rested incorrupt. She is venerated as the spiritual grandmother of the Russian people and the first Christian ruler of Rus.

The Church glorifies her as Equal-to-the-Apostles for her great contribution to the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples, venerating her feast on July 11 according to the Julian Calendar.