WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD

When most people think of Saints they think of  of hands clasped together looking at the sky in awe at the wonder of god, being killed in the name of Christendom, and surrounded by peace and love. Now throw that all out the window and lets talk about Saint Olga of Kiev.

Olga was married to Igor and had a son named Sviatoslav. Together they ruled Kiev and Rus. One of the tribes who payed tribute, the Drevlians, decided they no longer wanted to pay tribute and so Igor had to go and convince them to pay. Instead of paying they took two trees, pulled them together, tied Igor to the trees, and let the trees go ripping him in half. After the death Igor reached Olga’s ears she was furious as she and Igor had loved each other since childhood.

The Drevlians then sent match makers to Olga and asked Olga to marry their prince, Prince Mal. Olga said come back the next day and my people will carry you to me. The next morning when the Drevlians came to shore and demanded they be carried in their boat to Olga they picked them, put them in a pit, and buried them alive.

Prince Mal was unaware of this and Olga sent him a letter asking for him to send her is best men to escort her. Prince Mal then sent her his men. When then men came they were dirty and she sent them to a bath house. When the men went inside she barricaded the door and lit it on fire. Anyone who escaped she had her guards slay.

Prince Mal DID NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS. She then set out for her “future husband”. When she got to the capital she insisted that she have a proper funeral feast for her husband. While the Drevlians drank Olga and her men did not. They killed almost 5,000 men that night.

Olga then toured the Drevlians territory collecting all the tribute they still owed her over the years. When she came to the city of Iskorosten they refused to pay her. For a year they laid siege to the city for a year after a year she proposed peace. Her conditions were three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. She tied sulfur to their feet and sent them back to city since they would go back to their nests on the straw roof of the homes of which they came. Yeah it burned down the whole city. All the citizens where killed or enslaved.

They made this lady a Saint once she converted. She is the Saint of Widows and Converts. After her murder spree a few thousand people other foreign rulers tried to marry her. She converted in 957AD. The Byzantine Emperor attempted to marry but she managed to find a way out of that. I guess when she asked him to send his best men he didn’t fall for it.