Olga of Kyiv
Ruler of Kyiv who was baptized at Constantinople with the name Helena, a generation before the baptism of Rus’. Her son remained pagan; the Kyivan chronicle calls her the forerunner of the Christian land.
The Primary Chronicle tells her baptism as a story: the emperor Constantine wished to marry her, she asked him to stand sponsor at her baptism, and then pointed out that a godfather may not marry his goddaughter. She was named Helena and went home to a son and people who were still pagan (Primary Chronicle, years 948–955). A German chronicler of her own time confirms the essentials. Under 959 he records envoys of Helena, queen of the Rus’, “baptized at Constantinople” in the reign of an emperor he calls Romanus, asking King Otto I for a bishop and priests (Continuator of Regino, year 959).
The chronicle puts her death in 969 and says that a priest buried her, at her own wish, without the pagan funeral feast (Primary Chronicle, year 969). When Vladimir the Great’s counsellors recommended the Greek faith, the chronicle has them argue that Olga, the wisest of all, would not have chosen it had it been bad (Primary Chronicle, year 987). See the Baptism of Rus’.
In the timeline
- AD 988/989, estimated dateThe Baptism of Rus’
Vladimir, prince of Kyiv, accepts baptism from Constantinople and marries the emperor’s sister. The chronicle of Kyiv tells of a choice among faiths and of his people baptized in the Dnieper; Greek and Arabic writers tell of an alliance.
Primary sources
Primary Chronicle (Tale of Bygone Years)
- Primary Chronicle, years 948–955mgh-bibliothek.de
- Primary Chronicle, year 969mgh-bibliothek.de
- Primary Chronicle, year 987mgh-bibliothek.de