Saint Olympias (Olympias) of Constantinople

Olympias resolved from then on to dedicate herself entirely to the Lord. In vain did they try every means, even threats and persecutions, to lead her into a second marriage; the young widow remained unshakable. Resolved to practice the virtues recommended to widows by the Apostle, she gave herself over to the exercises of prayer and penance, never daring to eat meat and subduing her flesh through rigorous and continuous fasting. Modesty, candor, simplicity, and gentleness shone through in all her conduct, and her charity became boundless. "Her alms," says Saint Chryso stom, "were like saint Chrysostome Predecessor of Tryphon cited as an example of a holy and persecuted bishop. a river open to everyone, which flowed to the ends of the earth, and whose abundance enriched even the Ocean."

This virtue, so pure, was nevertheless, like all great virtues, subjected to harsh trials. Prey to painful illnesses, she was also the target of dark slanders and infamous persecutions. "You know," Saint Chrysostom wrote to her, "the advantage of sufferings; you therefore have reason to rejoice at having lived, from your youth, in afflictions and at having thus walked on a path of laurels and crowns: a single one of your many afflictions would have sufficed to fill a soul with spiritual riches.

Olympias's virtue was the admiration of the whole Church; the holiest bishops held her in singular veneration, and several maintained a correspondence of letters with her.

One of the most dreadful tribulations for this noble and holy soul was the exile of her admirable director, of her incomparable bishop, Saint Chrysostom. She w saint Chrysostome Predecessor of Tryphon cited as an example of a holy and persecuted bishop. as one of the last to part from the great doctor, who was unworthily persecuted; they were forced to tear her away from his feet, which she was bathing with her tears, at the moment of his departure.

Olympias was, after that, cruelly persecuted by the agents of the em press, an odi l'impératrice Enemy of Saint Chrysostom who persecuted Olympias (historically Eudoxia). ous enemy of the courageous archbishop. Nothing could determine her to communicate with the intrusive successor of her exiled pastor. Summoned before the prefect of Constantinople, condemned to a fine, banished from the city whose poor lived on her alms, she saw a large part of her property confiscated and sold publicly, and a community of women , virgins or widows, communauté de femmes Group of virgins and widows living under the direction of the saint. who lived under her direction, dispersed.

Intrepid under the blows with which she was overwhelmed, Olympias submitted with incomparable gentleness to all the sufferings of the spirit, the heart, and the body, blessing, after the example of Job and Lazarus, the hand which, from heaven, was thus purifying her soul and preparing for her an immortal diadem. She was crowned with it around the year 410.

Saint Olympias i s depicted distr M. l'abbé Chapin Author of the biographical source. ibuting alms.

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