The life of the Saint Princess Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, contains many historical mysteries

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Saint Princess Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, left many historical mysteries to keep her descendants busy. 

In the middle of the 10th century, a prominent preacher, the German monk Adalbert, arrived in Kiev to instruct the Slavs in the Christian faith. He came there on the invitation not from no other, but Princess Olga herself.

In the year of 959 Olga sent an embassy to the court of the German king Otto I. Western chronicles (the Chronicle of Reginon of Prüm and the Hersfeld Annals) bear witness to this.

The ambassadors assured the king that their people "wished to renounce pagan customs," and therefore asked to send to their country "any bishop who would reveal to them the way of truth."

Many are still perplexed by this historical fact. Why did not Olga turn to Byzantium, from which she herself had embraced the faith, why did she decide to address Christians from the West? 

Historians, however, say there was nothing wrong with that - the princess never meant to impose the Latin faith. 

"Of course, by the 10th century the tensions between Eastern and Western Christian Churches were building up. Rome and Constantinople were struggling to gain more influence in Europe. But at that time the final split between Western and Eastern churches had not yet occurred," says medievalist historian Klim Zhukov. Besides, according to the scholar, baptism was then regarded not as much as a religious,  but rather as a political act.

Therefore, the researcher explains, Olga wanted not only to baptize her subjects, but also to gain the support of the strongest powers of the time - the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Russia fell out with the former in 959. This could have been the reason why the princess decided to try her luck with her western neighbors.

However, monk Adalbert’s mission failed. The new Kiev prince Svyatoslav did not like Christians, to put it mildly. And the preacher had to flee.

Despite the rocky relations with Constantinople, Olga herself is believed to have been baptized there. Yet, here, too, historians have different opinions.

According to "The Tale of Bygone Years" (the earliest Russian written source), it all happened in 955. The rite was performed personally by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Patriarch Theophylact.

"And in baptism she was named Helen, as was the ancient queen - the mother of Emperor Constantine I", - the Chronicle says.

Byzantium sources tell us about a single visit Olga paid to Tsargrad. Basil Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself described it in detail in his work "Ceremonies", though he did not specify the year, but he mentioned the exact dates of official receptions - Wednesday, September 9, and Sunday, October 18. Such combinations of dates and weekdays were only found in the years of 946 and 957. Therefore the majority of experts are convinced that the ruler was christened not in 955, but two years later.

There is also other version. Constantine VII mentioned a priest named Gregory among those who arrived with Olga. This led some historians to assume that by the time Olga visited Constantinople she had already been baptized.

"The fact is that there were Christian communities even before the Baptism of Russia in Kiev and other large cities. For example, in the 860s there was a "Photius baptism," Klim Zhukov explains. - The textbook stories about the year 988 refer to nothing but a political act, when the prince, boyars, his army and large cities officially adopted a new faith.  

Historians have many questions about the origins of the saint, too. There is practically no information about her life before her marriage to Prince Igor.

According to the same "Tale of Bygone Years" she came from Pskov (in Old Russian - "Pleskovo"). Olga’s hagiography indicates is a more precise location - the village of Vybuty. Both sources testify that the princess "came from a poor family".

There is also a legend of how Olga first met her future husband. Igor, the son of Rurik, who ruled in Kiev, was hunting in the Pskov lands. One day he needed to cross the Velikaya River near Vybut.

The prince noticed a young man who was sailing on a shuttle boat and asked for help. Igor was mistaken: whom he believed to have been a young rower, was Olga. The girl was slender, beautiful, and "the heart of the prince was enflamed. Having returned to Kiev, he ordered for her to be brought to his court and took her as his wife”.

But another source - "Joachim's Chronicle" - says that Olga came from a noble Varangian family in the town of Izborsk.

Historians who share this view, point to the name of the princess which sounds pretty much like the Scandinavian "Helga”. Besides, the presence of Vikings in those places is confirmed by archaeological finds of the X century.

There is a third theory: the saint could have been a Bulgarian. The latest version of "The Tale of Bygone Years" dated XVI century, says that Oleg brought Igor a wife from Bulgary, a “princess named Olga, and she was very wise".

The toponym "Pleskov" was interpreted not as Pskov, but as Pliska - the ancient capital of Bulgaria.  But the fact is that by the time the chronicle was compiled the spelling "Pleskov" for Pskov had long gone out of use. Therefore, historians are sure that the saint came from northwest of Russia. But her ethnicity is still a mystery.

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