On 24 July 2021 the memory of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Princess Olga was honored at the Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Convent in Tashkent. On this day the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the convent, and on the eve the archpastor celebrated a polyeleos service with an akathist at the Dormition Cathedral of the capital.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were Archpriest Ioann Kuleshov, Priest Igor Sladkov and Deacon Pyotr Gnatik.
The abbess of the convent, Hegumeness Ekaterina (Malgina), and the sisters of the holy community also prayed at the Liturgy.
After the service His Eminence addressed the worshippers with an instructive word in which he spoke of the contribution of the holy Grand Princess Olga to the enlightenment of Rus' with the light of the knowledge of Christ's truth:
"Today we glorify the foremother of the Orthodox faith in Holy Rus', the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. The Lord so judged that it was precisely through a woman that He enlightened the Russian people, who were then still pagan and rooted in sins and vices, in various crimes and sinful pleasures. The Lord visited the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga with His grace; she received this grace and carried her Orthodox faith among her people. It was not easy to begin the transformation of her people, who for centuries had lived in paganism, in those sinful traditions handed down from generation to generation. People were rooted in their sins. When she tried to influence her son Svyatoslav, he was afraid of losing the support of his retinue. He looked at those around him and feared that they would mock him and come to hate him.
She, too, had walked the same path, surrounded by pagans with their established traditions and sinful deeds. She was able to leave all this behind and take upon herself the morality and spirituality that our Lord Jesus Christ gave her. She did not look back at her relatives and kin, who thought differently, lived differently and saw this life differently. She prayed much for her son, but he never managed to heed his mother. She also spoke to her nephew Vladimir, and the seed of Christ's faith that she had sown did indeed spring up nineteen years later. He was baptized and became the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Vladimir, the enlightener of the Russian land with the Orthodox faith.
St. Olga began the transformation of the Russian soul from pagan impiety to an Orthodox Christian way of life."
