SAINT OLYMPIAS AND ME

Saint Olympias

"Olympias the Deaconess"

born between 361 and 368 in Antioch or Constantinople

died July 25, 408 in Nicomedia

Today we celebrate the feast day of another shirttail relation of mine, Saint Olympias (the younger) an early deaconess of the church. If the early saints are not actual relatives of mine, they all seemed to know my relations and interact with them. In this case, Saint Olympias (the younger), daughter of an Antiochian Greek noblewoman, Alexandra and her husband, the wealthy Greek Seleucus. She was named after her paternal Aunt Olympias who was once engaged to Roman Emperor Constans, who was the uncle of the wife of my 48th great-uncle. Did you get that? (My Ancestry family tree automatically figures out relationships, thanks be to God, because I never could!)

Constans

Augustus of the Western Roman Empire

born 323

died February 350

When Olympias was orphaned as a child, her fortune was put into trust. She was raised by prominent people in the Roman world until such time as she may accept a husband. As with all women in possession of great fortunes in that day, she received many proposals of marriage. Typically, the man would then have control over her money, and it is no wonder that these women were extraordinarily picky when it came to accepting any one of them as husband, because the husband would rule over her and spend her money according to his desires. It was an incentive for celibacy and religious life!

She eventually married the prefect Nebridus, who died not long after that. Subsequently, my great grandfather, Emperor Theodosius, put her fortune in trust, once again, until the arbitrary age of 30, probably in retaliation against her. She had rejected his choice of second husband for her. I suppose he thought she must be mad to defy his guidance. What a frustrating time for women!

Theodosius I "The Great"

Emperor of the Roman Empire

born Jan. 11, 347

died Jan. 17, 395

My 47th great-grandfather

When she finally got her full estate in the year 391, she began her spiritual works of mercy in earnest. She was consecrated a deaconess and founded a community of religious women with several other monied ladies. She established a hospital and an orphanage, gave considerable assistance to the monks of Nitria, and was a strong supporter of Saint John Chrysostom after he was expelled in 404 from Constantinople. (He had become her spiritual director in about 398, six years previously.)

Statue of Saint Olympius - 

On the facade of Saint Peter's Basilica

Because of her support of Chrysostom, her community was disbanded and her charitable works were prohibited. As usual, power hungry men, whose method of ruling was basically force and punishment for everyone who came within their orbit, persecuted her for the rest of her days.

She was sick and alone at the end of her life, her friend Chrysostom in exile in another place from which he encouraged and comforted her. She died in Nicomedia July 25, 408, less than a year after the death of Chrysostom.

Saint John Chrystostom

Friend of Saint Olympias

This story sounds so very familiar to me! I have compared notes with other independent religious women and all of us have plans for religious institutions and charitable projects, should money ever fall into our hands. All of us have succumbed to societal and survival pressures for husbands, who STILL, in this day and age, want to spend our money on obscenities like booze, guns, pornography and mistresses. After working an entire lifetime with nothing to show for it, I have something to say about the disparity of income between men and women, the need for equal pay and equal protection under the law and the inherent immorality of men asserting dominion over women in any sphere, including religious.

Brutal, money-hungry despots still prowl the world, using force and deception to gain power over others, especially women, who they publicly malign and despise, but regardless of the power and supposed "prestige" they manage to accrue, history will record their shame.

I am thinking of Donald Trump and his enablers while I write this. I am thinking about his crimes, his immorality, his ethical bankruptcy, his misogyny, his xenophobia and his other prejudices that are the antithesis of the Christian way. I am thinking of how he used so-called "charities" to line his pockets and fund his campaign for power.

I am thinking, especially, of how he ripped babies, toddlers and children from the arms of their parents and stuffed them into small cells behind chain-link fences to sleep on cement floors with little or no medical care and how thousands of them may never see those parents again because he and his minions did not see the necessity to keep track of their whereabouts. I am thinking of the babies that he let die from the flu because they were denied simple flu shots, and the crowded conditions did his dirty work for him. Just like the blankets infected by small pox that were given to the Native Americans in the early days of America.

These type of men have always been with us - whether you call them "Prefect Optatus," "Emperor Theodosius" or "President Trump," they are all the same. Their reigns are short, but human memory is long and tends to regard the saintly with a kindly eye while itt records the names and supposed "accomplishments" of tyrants and oppressors with disdain.

To whom will you attach your wagon?

I, for one, am on the side of the saints. Not Prefect Optatus. Not Emperor Theodosius. Not Donald Trump.

God save us all from the tyrants.

Silver Rose
Sannyasini Kaliprana

SAINT OLYMPIAS AND THE TOPIC OF FEMALE DEACONS

Saint Olympias (Olympia) 

Far left

(360-365 until July 25, 408)

One of today's saints is a female deaconess named Olympias (modern: Olympia). There is quite a lot known about her, as she was mentioned in the extant historical references around the turn of the 5th century. I found quite a few icons of her on the internet, and many pages dedicated to her from various sources. (See the list of references, below.)

Why do we know so much about her, while other saints we have previously mentioned remain a virtual mystery, except for their names? Well, it doesn't hurt to be born to a Senator and the daughter of an emperor and to be related to other famous and influential people of the time. In addition, her life was chock full of good works. When her parents died, she distributed their wealth to the poor. She was equally generous to the Church and its charitable institutions and monastic houses.

In addition, she had the admiration of other saints, John Chrysostom, for one, who called upon her and the other deaconesses (Pentadia, Proklia & Salbina) to remain with the church and serve his successor, after he himself was banished.

Sure enough, however, when one becomes famous for holiness, there are always those who will attack the saints, even persons belonging to the faith, human nature being what it is. Patriarch Theophilus (385-412) was so jealous of the devotion of Olympias for Chrysostom that he caused her some hardship for it. Theophilus had been the recipient of much of Olympias's generosity in the past, but his loyalty evaporated from the heat of envy. Even the saints have their frenemies! For me, it is a good object lesson about human nature. One can be doing and saying the most holy, pure and upright things, and still there will be people who will try to make one suffer for it - even those who are supposedly "religious!"

In fact, Olympias and other supporters of Chrysostom were wrongly accused of burning down a large church in Constantinople, and she was made to pay a huge sum of money in recompense, even though she was entirely innocent. The first thing that occurred to me when I read about this incident was that people, even church people, will sometimes go to great lengths to grab money away from innocent persons by accusing them falsely of some crime or character defect.

Obviously, it takes a great deal of self-control and self esteem in order to maintain the extremes of holiness that the saints exhibit.

Olympias's feast day also makes me think about how difficult it is for women to accomplish anything in the church these days, and how they were shoved out of the Diaconate many centuries since. Some people will say that the Diaconate was a different sort of proposition in the early church and that the title of Deaconess for a woman was an honorific or a generic title for a lady who gave much service to the church, but this is a weak argument for continuing to keep women out and for ignoring the feminine voice in the church.

It occurs to me that the current world-wide sex scandals of the church are a reflection of the heavily masculine nature of the hierarchy, but I have no studies to offer that back up my impression. It is just something that occurs to me now and then, and I wonder if the power of the church needs to be more equally divided before we will experience a balanced application of the faith.

Pope Francis opened an investigation into the topic of  women in the Diaconate. I wonder what happened to that?

In any case, Olympias is a wonderful role model and I feel encouraged to count her among the saints to whom I direct my requests for prayers! May she help me simplify my life and better direct it to the work of the Lord. Amen.

Silver Rose

References:

ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA

NEW ADVENT CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

CATHOLIC EXCHANGE

LOYOLA PRESS