True Life Tuesday: Olga of Kyiv

This woman was the living embodiment of the woman scorned. She was not someone you would want to mess with. 

Olga of Kyiv was born around 900 CE in the Viking empire of Kievan Rus in what is today Pskov, Russia near Estonia. Her family were Varangian and descended from the first Vikings. Around the age of 15 she married Grand Prince Igor I. 

The Kievan Rus empire ran many smaller tribes in the area but they had trouble with the tribe called the Drevlians. When Igor's father died the Drevlians quit paying their tribute. When Igor went to their capital to determine why they quit paying he was brutally murdered. After Igor's death she became regent because her son, Sviatoslaw, was only 3 years old and unable to rule. 

Olga become hell bent on getting revenge. After Igor's death Prince Mal of the Drevlians sent 20 dignitaries to Kyiv to ask Olga to marry him. She welcomed the men while ordering her solders to dig a ditch at the same time. once the ditch was dug Olga had the soldiers throw the dignitaries in and bury them alive. She then wrote to Prince Mal asking him to send his best men to Kyiv so they could accompany her to Drevlian. No knowing what happened to the previously sent men Prince Mal sent his men to her. When they arrived Olga offered them her bathhouse so they could clean up from the journey. Once they were inside she had her soldiers lock them in and set the bathhouse on fire. 

After this she made her way to Drevlian before word of what she did could get there. When she arrived Prince Mal held a banquet in her honor. When the Drevlians got drunk she had her soldiers raise their swords and they killed 5000 men. For another year she held the capital hostage and exacted her revenge. Eventually she asked for 3 pigeons and 3 sparrows from each household to leave in peace. However, she had one last trick up her sleeve. She had her soldiers attach a piece of sulfur to their legs with a small piece of cloth. The birds were then released and when they landed on the roofs of the houses they were set on fire and the entire town burned down. As people ran to escape they were captured. Some were killed, some were sold into slavery and a lucky few were left to rebuild the town. She left to return to Kyiv and the Drevlians made sure that they always paid their tribute to remain on her good side. 

At the time of her siege Olga and her people were pagans. After the siege she went to Constantinople where she converted to Christianity. When she returned to Kyiv she encouraged her people to also convert. She was canonized a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. To this day she is the Patron Saint of Widows and Converts in the church.