Olga of Kiev was widowed after her husband, Igor I of Kiev, was assassinated by the Drevlians in a terribly gruesome way. The tribe that killed him then sent a marriage proposal to her and she accepted- or so it seemed.
(I'm sure you're wondering why this is important to writers and mystery/suspense fans about now. Well, here comes the violent part, so you can stop wondering.)
She sent for a party of men from the proposing tribe to celebrate the marriage with her, then buried them alive in a pre-dug ditch while she asked them loudly whether this was honorable enough for them. If this wasn't violent enough, she then set up a bathhouse and invited a party to join her there. She locked them in and burned them alive.
About now you're probably wondering if this can get worse for the tribe who assassinated her husband, and it can.
She declared that she wanted a banquet to honor her fallen husband and grieve for him just once more before she wed the other tribe's prince. Once there, she did grieve for her husband. During the meal, she got the tribe drunk and ordered her men to kill everyone there, egging her men on as they did so.
Even after she had done all this, it wasn't enough. She held their village under siege, then offered them a way out: a few pigeons and a dove. They were delighted, gave her exactly that, and went on their way thinking everything was going to be okay. She had sulphur tied to the birds, lit the sulphur, and set the whole place on fire by sending the birds home. She took survivors as slaves.
She continued to avoid remarrying to save the throne for her son, and she was successful in this. When her husband had died, her son had been three years old, thus wasn't ready to rule.
Why was this woman a saint?
After what you just read, the question above must be somewhere in your thoughts. Believe it or not, this woman brought Christianity to Russia and the Constantine Empire. She successfully converted a great many of her subjects to Christianity, but wasn't so successful with her son.
She had great intelligence and wit in avoiding proposals, and great power that, once she accepted Christ, was used for good. What she did before her conversion may have been anything but Christ-like, but she genuinely accepted Christ and became a saint.
Why is she important to readers and writers out there? For one thing, as a Christian, it comforts me to know that if God can forgive this woman, he has plenty of grace to offer us.
For another thing, it's good to remember that your characters are not static and should not remain static, if you want them to appear realistically in the readers' minds. It isn't impossible for real people, like Olga of Kiev, to make an abrupt change in their lives. This simply illustrates that it can be realistic for a character to be ruthless in one part of the book and change as the book goes on.
What do you want to hear about, fellow writers and readers? I aim to please, so comment below.
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