Princess Olga of Kiev - South Bound Brook, NJ
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 32.805 W 074° 31.214
18T E 540624 N 4488554
The first "Rus" to convert to Christianity...she is also considered to be a Saint--despite her despotic slaughter of many.
Waymark Code: WMCPQC
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 09/30/2011
Views: 5
Also known as St. Olha or Olga, this Princess ruled as Regent after the death of her husband, Igor, and before her son, Sviatoslav the Brave, ascended to the throne. She was born around 890 and died in Kiev July 11, 969.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"At the start of her son's reign, Olga spent great effort to avenge her husband's death at the hands of the Drevlians, and succeeded in slaughtering many of them and interring some in a ship burial, while still alive. She is reputed to have scalded captives to death and another, probably apocryphal[citation needed], story tells of how she destroyed a town hostile to her. She asked that each household present her with a dove as a gift, then tied burning papers to the legs of each dove which she then released to fly back to their homes. Each avian incendiary set fire to the thatched roof of their respective home and the town was destroyed. More importantly in the long term, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.
Christianity
She was the first Rus' ruler to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or in 957. The ceremonies of her formal reception in Constantinople were minutely described by Emperor Constantine VII in his book De Ceremoniis. Following her baptism she took the Christian name Yelena, after the reigning Empress Helena Lekapena. The Slavonic chronicles add apocryphal details to the account of her baptism, such as the story how she charmed and "outwitted" Constantine and how she spurned his matrimonial proposals. In truth, at the time of her baptism, Olga was an old woman, while Constantine had a wife.
Olga was one of the first people of Rus' to be proclaimed a saint, for her efforts to spread the Christian religion in the country. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Orthodox Church calls St. Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". However, she failed to convert Svyatoslav, and it was left to her grandson and pupil Vladimir I to make Christianity the lasting state religion. During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod together with her grandsons. She died soon after the city's siege by the Pechenegs in 969."
This sculpture by Petro Kapshutschenko depicts her sitting on her throne with a crown and draping headdress and flowing robes. She has her right hand on the armrest and her left hand is clenched in the middle of her chest. It is located on the grounds of St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Memorial Church at at 135 Davidson Avenue, South Bound Brook, NJ 08873. Unfortunately, the sculpture is undated.