St. Olympias

Source: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=797

Olympias the Younger was born either in Constantinople or Antioch. Her father was a wealthy Greek Rhetor named Seleucus and her mother was an Antiochian Greek woman named Alexandra. She was named after her paternal aunt, Olympias, who was once engaged to the Roman emperor Constans who later married the Roman client king of Arsacid Armenia, Arsaces II (Arshak II). Her paternal grandfather was Flavius Ablabius who had held consular rank in Constantinople, and her maternal uncle was Calliopius the Rhetor who served as a grammarian and assistant-teacher under the Rhetor, historian Libanius and later served as a Roman official under the Roman emperors Constantius II and Julian the Apostate. To anyone who is not following, a rhetor is a teacher of rhetoric.

When Olympias was eighteen, she married a nobleman who served as prefect to Constantinople, whose name was Nebridius, but Nebridius died only two years later. After refusing many later marriage proposals, she dedicated her life to the Church and served as a deaconess. She later became a friend of Saint John Chrysostom.

In her life, she built hospital and an orphanage. She looked after the monks who had been led in exile from Nitria. This led John Chysostom to tell her that she had almost done too much. Her support for Chrysostom led to her exile in 404. Having lost her house, she lived the rest of her life in Nicomedia, dying on July 25, 408, after a long illness.

St. Olympias gave so much. She could have been remarried and maybe obtained a child or two, and lived in relative comfort. She certainly had relatives in high places and came from a wealthy family overall. But rather than doing so, she chose to give her life to God and to others. Some might say she wasted her life or something to that effect, but I have no doubt she was rewarded far more for that in heaven.

St. Olympias
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