NOVOGOROD. 
36 
CHAP. 
III. 
Baptism of 
Olga, about 
the middle 
of the tenth 
century. 
A.D. 991. 
after avenging the death of her husband upon 
the Volga, occurred very early in the annals of 
that country. “ She went," say the compilers 
of the Modern Universal History', “for what 
reason we know not, to Constantinople. Yet when 
it is related, that she was baptized there" ; that, 
in consequence of her example, many ol her 
subjects became converts to Christianity; that 
the Russians, to this day, rank her among their 
Saints, and annually commemorate her festival; 
the cause of her journey will hardly admit of a 
doubt. The result of it proves incontestably 
the introduction of Christianity, and the esta- 
blishment of churches in Russia, at an earlier 
period than is generally admitted; namely, the 
baptism of Vladimir \ 
(1) Vol. XXXV. p.. 182. 
(2) The Emperor, John Zimisces, according to some historians, was 
her godfather upon this occasion. It has been related, that he be- 
came enamoured of the Scythian Princess, and proposed marriage ; 
which was refused. The old lady, notwithstanding, was at that time 
in her sixty-sixth year ; for she died at the age of eighty, which hap- 
pened fourteen years after her baptism. Collateral anuals, by dis- 
cordant chronology, seem to prove that the whole story, about the 
Eastern Emperor’s amorous propensities, is founded in error and ab- 
surdity. Zimisces was not crowned until Cbristmas-day A.D. 969. 
Ten years before this period, Helena (which was the name borne by 
Olga, after her baptism) had sent ambassadors to Otho, Emperor of 
the West, desiring Missionaries to instruct her people. A mission 
was consequently undertaken by St. Adelhert, bishop of Magdeburg, 
into Russia, A.D. 962. 
(3) Some authors place this event four years earlier. The present 
chronology is that of Du I'resnny. 
