It is not easy for a foreign heart to solve the spiritual enigma of Russia. Nevertheless, Holy Russia has never ceased to exist. The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ is now showing its miraculous fruit in this country as more and more souls enter the doors of the Church in order to find their spiritual roots and acquire their heavenly mortherland in an invisible connection with the Russian saints.
"One cannot embrace Russia with one's mind," wrote the famous Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev. "Russia cannot be measured by an ordinary yardstick. Russia has dignity of its own. Russia is a country one can only believe in."
We are going to show you this inimitable spiritual beauty of the Russian land through the lives and deeds of the princes, martyrs, monks and priests who were canonized as saints. Joined together by the Holy Spirit they constitute a golden chain of Russian sanctity. These living links belong to various ages, but in their spiritual unity they represent the triumph of Christianity on this sinful earth.
The first precious link in the holy Russian chain of saints, the first sparkling star on the dark pagan horizon of ancient Russia, is Holy Olga (or  Helga in Scandinavian tradition), who was baptized in Byzantium in the middle of the 10th century with the name of Yelena (Helen).
The ancient northern name Helga is close to the German "hielige" which means "holy". Our earthly names often conceal the mystery of personality and indicates characteristic features of the human heart. Olga was of noble origin, and the members of her royal family sensed the fragrant aroma of wisdom and courage concealed in the depths of her young soul. The modest but appealing landscape of northern Russia with its limitless green plains, crystal pure lakes and majestically silent forests fostered in Olga a liking for solitude, contemplation and prayer.
Several miles separate the northern Russian town of Pskov from the River Velikaya (the Great River) where the beautiful Olga met her husband-to-be, Prince Igor. The luckless Prince was later torn in two by being bound to two trees first fastened together and then released. The dreadful murder was the retaliation of a small tribe of Drevlyans because Prince Igor had imposed on them an exorbitant contribution.
Olga was not yet "the child of her Father who is in Heaven" (Matth, 5, 45) and was not enlightened by the words of the Gospel: "Do good to them that hate you, love your enemies." So she took revenge and had the Drevlyans' fortress burned down. But now permeated with grief, Olga's soul was able to receive the saving drops of God's grace. She proved to be an able ruler of the Russian land. Historians assert that the first state-borders of Russia were established during Olga's reign. But her immortal soul had not gained divine peace in these earthly endeavours. Paganism was too coarse a religion to satisfy her heart. In her search for "grace and truth" Olga went to Constantinople in the summer of the year 955.
The northern Princess was amazed at the dazzling beauty of the Emperor's palaces and the numbers of his Court. But no words can describe the change that came over Olga's heart the moment she entered the Church of Sancta Sophia, that gem of Christian architecture of all times. The invisible meeting with our Lord Jesus Christ is beyond human power to depict. We can only guess that His grace found no obstacle in Olga's wise heart and filled it with love and hope and belief in Resurrected Christ.
The Russian Princess was baptized by the Patriarch himself and the Byzantine Emperor became her Godfather. The Patriarch set Olga on the right part, telling her:
"Blessed art thou among Russian women because you have left darkness and loved the Light. You will be revered be all the future Russian generations."
Olga accepted with gratitude the instructions about God's commandments and prayers. She stood dressed in a white garment like a blossoming apple-tree. Saint Nestor the chronicler wrote:
"Her soul became a sponge which absorbed with great thirst the holy words of the Patriarch. Making a low bow she said:
"I beg you to pray for me so that God Almighty may save me from the devil's work."
The Emperor presented his God-child with a liturgical platter of gold, which later became an object of pious awe and delight. The chronicler of the XIII century witness that Saint Olga's plate was ornamented with precious stone and the icon of Jesus Christ was engraved on it. This was, no doubt, the symbol of her heart, which forever after prayed: "O, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!"
The prayer left its mark on Olga's face. All the features became serene. The white forehead never wrinkled. And her moving lips often betrayed the invisible presence of Jesus in the depths of her heart. But most surprising were her blue eyes. They sparkled with the light of heavenly grace. It was a spiritual beauty glowing from within as if Olga were an angel. Even today in remote Russian monasteries and in the crowded town parishes too an observer can catch glimpses of such holy faces.
Carrying deep in her soul the graceful memory of her spiritual motherland, the Russian ruler built and sanctified the beautiful church of Sancta Sophia in Kiev. The main shrine is the holy cross which the Patriarch in Constantinople gave to Olga in blessing. This cross made in the form of the life-giving Lord's Cross was ornamented with the following words in Slavic:
"The Russian land will be rejuvenated by the Holy Cross given to Princess Olga."
Surely, predestination rules our life. A Christian, who prays to God in the spirit of a child, often reflects in his life the moral virtues of his heavenly patron, that is the saint whose name he was given at baptism. Saint Helen, a Byzantine Princess was the God-chosen soul that found Christ's Cross buried deep in the Hill of Golgotha. Saint Olga, called Helen in her Christian life, covered Russian hills with crosses as the paradise trees of eternal life.
Once Olga was walking along the bank of the River Velikaya. The northern landscape filled her heart with divine delight. She sighed deeply, her lips whispered a prayer of praise. All of a sudden she saw a dazzling beam of light which pierced the clouds and touched the green grass. Near the surface of the earth the beam split into three rays as witness of its divine origin.
That miraculous vision was God's indication that a church should be built on the spot and consecrated to the Holy Trinity. This was the beginning of the Kremlin of Pskov which still stands towering over the river as proof of Olga's religious spirit. Princess Olga manifested a virtue which seems incredible to modern man. She was always occupied with earthly matters, constantly carrying the burden of personal responsibility for every thing she spoke or did and although most of the time she was surrounded by suspicious and envious people, she was always calm, wise and merciful. For Christ lived in her soul, protecting it from despair, hatred and anger. Jesus led the Princess to the heights of the spiritual scale. Saint Olga came to know the truth of the words of the New Testament: "We must enter into the kingdom of God through much tribulation."
Olga's Christian virtues were not understood by her son Svyatoslav, a coarse warrior who preferred the smell of horses' sweat and the pagan blood of his enemies. The proud Prince conquered more that eighty towns but his mother's heart felt a deep sorrow. The Russian soil was at the time too hard and dry, like Svyatoslav's soul, to absorb the heavenly rain of God's grace. Saint Olga never dared to baptize her grandson Vladimir. But her wise instructions and simple narrations about Jesus Christ and His divine love for all and His death and Resurrection planted the seeds that grew to full flowering in the soul of Vladimir many years later. Olga's silent prayers for Russia were more powerful in the eyes of the heavenly Father than all the battles of her son. Olga's behaviour has always been a model for all Russian women.
When the Angel of Death was approaching Olga, she said with profound humility:
"Oh Lord! Thy will be done in the Russian land! If Almighty God wants to give mercy to my people, He will incline their hearts towards Him, as He has done with my soul."
One hundred years later a monk James by name wrote in his chronicle:
"Princess Olga glorified God with all her good deeds, and our Lord glorified His trustful servant, never letting her body revert to dust. Her remains were found intact and put into a special tomb in a Dormition Church in Kiev. The presence of God was more that evident there. When a person of pious heart and clean thoughts approached the tomb with a sacred tremor a little window in the tomb opened, moved by an invisible divine force so that the pilgrim could see the glorified body of Saint Olga. But if a person of vice approached, the window remained closed.
I wonder whether we have the chance of looking at Saint Olga through that window.
Saint Olga was "like the morning dew before the light of the sun." Let us now pray for ourselves lest our eyes refuse to endure the rays of grace emanating from her on the day of the Last Judgment.
12/24/2004 |