St. Olympias was at the center of the political scene in ancient Constantinople, and she gave all her power away—along with her immense fortune—to love God and serve the poor. As a result, Olympias became friends with several great Turkish saints of the late fourth century.
Olympias was born around the year 361 AD to an influential family of Constantinople. Her parents, Seleucus and Alexandra, died when she was still a child, and she was put under the care of her uncle Procopius. Procopius was a pious Christian as was her nanny, Theodosia. Theodosia, who was like Olympias' second mother, raised her to be a holy Christian woman, instructing Olympias in the Christian faith and encouraged her to pursue virtue. Her nanny introduced her to Gregory of Nyssa, who became a spiritual father to Olympias. Olympias grew up to become an intelligent and good woman. She was also attractive and had inherited a fortune, so her uncle had little trouble arranging a lucrative marriage for Olympias with a wealthy man.
Just over a year after the wedding, her husband, Nebridius, died, leaving Olympias even richer than before, as she inherited Nebridius' vast and profitable estates. Given that she was now the lady of a great deal of valuable land, Olympias became a highly desirable widow, who caught the attention of Emperor Theodosius. Emperor Theodosius put great pressure upon Olympias to marry again—the emperor suggested his cousin Elpidius (a convenient match that would bring all that land into the imperial family). Olympias flatly refused. She resolved to become a consecrated widow in the Church and give her entire life and livelihood to her fellow Christians. “Had God wanted me to remain a wife,” Olympias purportedly said, “He would not have taken my husband away.”
In response to her stubbornness, Emperor Theodosius seized Olympias' wealth and put it under the direction of an official until she was thirty, unless she agreed to marry his cousin. Undaunted, Olympias wrote to the emperor thanking him, saying that she was glad to be free of the worry about her fortune, and asked him to do her the favor of simply giving half of it to the Church and the rest to the poor. Emperor Theodosius was impressed by her spunk and her fortitude—her parrhesia—and he restored her estates to her, which Olympias then promptly donated to the Church. In 398, Olympias founded a monastery in one of her palaces in Constantinople. She became a sort of abbess of the community that gathered there. The community grew until around 250 women living there as monastic sisters. When she was thirty, she was ordained a deaconess by the archbishop of Constantinople.
In 398, St. John Chrysostom was elected bishop of Constantinople, and the fiery preacher and Olympias quickly became close friends. They were both devoted to an ascetic lifestyle and to caring for the poor. One of Chrysostom's biographers wrote: "There was no one in Constantinople with whom he was to have a deeper or more sympathetic understanding, no one with whom he was to feel more at ease or to whom he was to pour out his heart more unreservedly."
Although he shunned dinner parties, John Chrysostom would eat the simple meals that Olympias brought him. He collaborated closely with Olympias and her companions. The women built an orphanage and a hospital next to their house.
She had long been friends with St. Gregory Nazianzen, and being at the center of the Church in Constantinople, she befriended many other holy people, including St. Gregory of Nyssa.
In 404, John Chrysostom was exiled after he got on the wrong side of Empress Eudoxia. Olympias was persecuted because of her close association with him and her loyalty to him as the true Archbishop of the city. Her opponents slandered her and John and her community fell apart. Due to these trials, Olympias went into a sort of self-imposed exile and definitively left the city she had lived in for so long and given so much to and lived her final years in Nicomedia. She continued to keep up her spiritual mission of care for the poor.
During John's last days, he wrote many letters to Olympias, from his arduous journeys during his exile. These letters are poignant testimonies to the depth of suffering he and his friends were experiencing, and the spiritual friendship these two saints shared. As Olympias' letters (now lost) were written while she was being persecuted back in Constantinople, they are filled with her feelings of despondency and depression. John continues to encourage her to lift up her heart and to try to brighten her spirit. In one of the last letters he wrote:
"Nothing, Olympia, is so worthy of consideration as patience in the midst of pain and grief. For this is the queen of good things, the perfection of crowns, and just as it surpasses other virtues, so this particular form of virtue especially surpasses the others in brilliance."
John encourages her to be a "great athlete of patience," like Job. His letter is a beautiful encouragement from one who is finishing his own race (2 Tim 4:7) to a fellow runner, admonishing her to stay strong in the final laps ahead of her.
St. Olympias died from illness in 408, and her image above is used here with the permission of Catholic.org.
St. Olympias, deaconess of Constantinople and lover of the poor—pray for us!