SAINT OLEG OF BRYANSK

After Peter the Great’s decision to proclaim Saint Alexander Nevsky the heavenly patron of the Russian Empire and its new capital, followed by the reign of three Romanov emperors named Alexander in the 19th century, as well as the construction of numerous churches in the name of this saint, all other Russian holy ancient princes seemed doomed to oblivion. But no. Along with Andrei Bogolyubsky, Mikhail of Chernigov, Mikhail of Tver, Roman of Ryazan, George of Vladimir, Peter and Febronia of Murom, Daniel of Moscow, the holy prince Oleg of Bryansk has been greatly honored with a revival of his veneration in modern Russian Orthodoxy.

1 On October 3, the Church commemorates Saint Oleg of Bryansk. As with most of the more than fifty holy princes canonized by the Russian Church at the local and universal level of veneration, very little is known about Saint Oleg.

2 He was the grandson of Prince-Martyr Michael of Chernigov, who suffered at the hands of the Mongols in 1246 in the Horde and whose memory is celebrated on the same day as Oleg’s. Initially, Oleg took an active part in politics and in the battles of that turbulent time. Together with his father, Prince Roman, he fought against Lithuania, which had joined the alliance with the khan.

3 After 1274, Oleg renounced his ambitions for power and retired to the Bryansk Peter and Paul Monastery, which he himself had built, where he lived for about twelve more years and died around 1285. His veneration as a saint arose and then seemed to be forgotten in history until 1903, when his name was included in a new critical edition of the Russian liturgical menology.” Compiled based on the reviews of local diocesan bishops, this calendar aimed to identify the saints who were really venerated in the Russian Church at the beginning of the 20th century. The work carried out on the eve of the Local Council and the terrible upheavals of the Bolshevik era that followed proved to be prophetic.

4 According to the testimony of the prominent Russian theologian and specialist in Russian holiness, George Fedotov (1886–1951), who worked in Paris and then in New York, the righteous princes of Russia were glorified on four different “grounds.” First, they were princes equal to the apostles who baptized their people and their subjects; second, they were passion-bearers and martyrs who suffered innocently at the hands of their brethren in civil strife or at the hands of the Mongols; third, princes-warriors who defended their land from foreign oppressors, and finally, princes-monks who renounced the throne and devoted themselves to asceticism, penance, and charity.

6 Thus, in the person of Saint Oleg of Bryansk, the Church honors the holy prince-ascetic and congratulates all the numerous parishioners and believers who bear the ancient name “Oleg,” which etymologically means “holy” or “sacred.” By a resolution of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church dated July 14, 2018, the text of the service to the venerable and faithful Prince Oleg of Bryansk was also approved and edited.