Section 05: The Christian Princess

Olga’s efforts to plant the faith — at home, by example and church-building, and abroad, in the famous 959 embassy to the German king Otto I. The first file treats her christianizing efforts in still-pagan Kyiv and their limits; the second treats the embassy to Otto I and the abortive Latin mission of Bishop Adalbert — one of the rare Olga episodes attested by independent Western sources, and a model case for the collection’s source-critical method.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Equal-to-the-Apostles)

Contents

File Topic
Christianizing Efforts Her efforts to spread the faith at home: prayer and witness in a pagan court, the church-building tradition, the pre-existing Christian presence in Kyiv, and the limits a single convert-ruler met
The Embassy to Otto I The 959 embassy to Otto I attested in the Latin sources (“Helena, queen of the Rus’”); the failed mission of Bishop Adalbert (961–962); the west-turn puzzle and what the episode reveals

How to Use

  • Read Christianizing Efforts for Olga’s domestic religious project and its frustration.
  • Read The Embassy to Otto I for the rare case where a non-Rus’, non-Greek source corroborates the core of her story — a baptized Christian ruler seeking a church — while complicating the Chronicle’s tidy Byzantine-only narrative.

Cross-References