Now, as you can probably tell, much of this background is rooted in folklore and legend. However, it can be said for certain, even among argumentative historians, that Princess Olga was one of the most capable rulers of the Viking era. She ruled justly and fairly and was beloved by her people throughout her time as regent for her young son, Sviatoslav.

Once Sviatoslav was old enough, he took over as prince of Kievan Rus, but he was gone on military campaigns pretty much all the time, and everyone in Russia basically saw Olga as their full-time queen.

So how did a mass-murdering princess become a saint? Well, in 957, Olga traveled by ship to Constantinople to have a diplomatic meeting with the powerful Byzantine emperor, and while she was there, she was so impressed that she ended up deciding to convert to Orthodox Christianity. Emperor Constantine VII tried to get Olga to marry him and unite their kingdoms while she was there, but she had better things to do and said no way. Instead, she went back to Russia and immediately began building churches and converting her people to Christianity. By the time she finally died, she’d done so much for the Church that the bishops of Russia canonized her.

Saint Olga of Kiev

In 968, Kiev was besieged by a huge army of mounted warriors from a Turkic tribe known as the Pechenegs, who sneak-attacked Russia when Sviatoslav was out fighting the Poles and somehow made it all the way to the walls of the capital. Trapped in her beloved city with thousands of her subjects and her three infant grandchildren, Olga once again flexed her powers, ordering her men to resist and fight the barbarians at all costs, never surrender, never give up, etc. Then she came up with a stone-cold plan to get her people out of it.

First, she sent a messenger to swim the Dnieper River and link up with a small garrison of Russian troops stationed on the other side. This group of warriors was no match for the Pecheneg army, but Olga still ordered them to march right to the capital, blasting their trumpets and waving their flags. As soon as they came into view, the nearly eighty-year-old princess of Kiev threw open the doors of her city and, in full view of the enemy archers and soldiers, fearlessly walked toward the approaching troops with her arms out like she was going to hug them.