St. Olympias was a close friend of St. John Chrysostom. The latter became a spiritual father to the young Olympias and they grew a close relationship in their persecution. St. Olympias was born to nobility, her father Seleucus being a count of the Emperor and another of her ancestors, Ablabius, having filled the consulur office in 331 and later served as praetorian prefect of the East (New Advent: St. Olympias). She was left an orphan and came under the care of her uncle Procopius who was a good friend of St. Gregory Nazianzen (according to Butler's Lives of the Saints, she was brought up by the pious Theodosia). St. Gregory had even been invited to her wedding to Nebridius. Some sources state Nebridius died before the wedding, others don't give a specific indication. Because the traditional position on marriage includes consummation of the marriage to consider the man and woman wed, it is evident that she is, as Our Lady was, unwed. Nebridius's death left her a childless widow. Though the emperor and her relatives would pressure her into marrying another, she resisted and voluntarily gave her whole life to Christ instead (The Prologue of Ohrid, July 25). The emperor even attempted to have her property confiscated but after the war with Maximus in 391, restored her large fortune (New Advent: St. Olympias).
She was appointed a deaconess by the Patriarch Nectarius. We do not know much about the ancient order of deaconesses other than it did have a clerical function in assisting the women at baptisms and chrismations as these were done in the nude and it was indecent for men to look upon the women as it happened (Apostolic Constitutions, ch. III, sec. 2). It also appears that the order of consecrated widows responded to the instruction of the deaconesses (ch. 3, sec. 1, VII, XIV). Thus, some have pondered whether they were a separate order of widows or distinct altogether from the order of consecrated widows. According to the same source, the deaconess is not to bless and have no role equivalent to that of priest or deacon (ch. VIII, sec. 3, XXVIII). It is likely also that they were picked out from among the nuns or the consecrated virgins and consecrated widows though it is difficult to tell (New Advent: Deaconesses). Either way, they were most certainly a clerical order though whether this was considered a major order or a minor order is difficult to establish. My own parish has been practicing nude adult baptisms lately. We may want to consider addressing the need to have an order of deaconesses established. As St. Olympias was both a virgin and a widow, it is more than likely from her piety that she was picked as a deaconess.
It was during St. John Chrysostom's exile that a fire broke out in the Great Church and caused several buildings around the Great Church in the city of Constantinople to burn down. Due to the Empress Eudoxia's hatred of the moral preaching of St. John Chrysostom and St. Olympias's close friendship with the former patriarch of Constantinople, she was accused of starting the fire and sent into exile along with him. The story doesn't end with their reconciliation to the Church in their material life but it certainly holds a joyous ending. For we know that Our Lord promised a day coming when people would persecute His faithful followers in His own name (John 16:2). Both died in exile outside of communion with the Church as a consequence of the Empress Eudoxia's persecution of the orthodox faithful in the Church, but God's faithful trampled on the damned as both are rightfully venerated as saints in the Church today. She desired a burial at sea, her coffin was subsequently thrown into the ocean by her friends (The Prologue of Ohrid).
This suffering that she and St. John Chrysostom bore for the Church in crisis is a model for the current crisis we are undergoing as pious people become more and more observant to the fact that the earthly hierarchy hates us. St. John Chrysostom wrote upwards of seventeen letters to the Holy Virgin Olympias addressing his own exile and encouraging her as she began to fall into despondency exhorting her to stay faithful to the Church and not give into those persecuting the faithful of the Church. One letter compares the situation of the faithful to those who are shipwrecked at sea waiting for the Master to lay down His rod and stop the storm, rectifying all things.
"We behold a sea upheaved from the very lowest depths, some sailors floating dead upon the waves, others engulfed by them, the planks of the ships breaking up, the sails torn to tatters, the masts sprung, the oars dashed out of the sailors' hands, the pilots seated on the deck, clasping their knees with their hands instead of grasping the rudder, bewailing the hopelessness of their situation with sharp cries and bitter lamentations, neither sky nor sea clearly visible, but all one deep and impenetrable darkness, so that no one can see his neighbour, while mighty is the roaring of the billows, and monsters of the sea attack the crews on every side."
Another letter addresses the Holy Virgin's battle with despondency as a greater conquest than the sufferings experienced by Job.
"Therefore even if you remain at home, and are set fast in bed, do not consider your life an idle one; for you undergo more severe pains than those who are dragged, and maltreated, and tortured by executioners, inasmuch as in this excessive infirmity of yours you have a perpetual executioner residing with you."
He further commends her struggle against sin in another letter.
"Thus women have been crowned victors, while men have been upset; so also boys have been proclaimed conquerors, while aged men have been put to shame. It is indeed always fitting to admire those who pursue virtue, but especially when some are found to cling to it at a time when many are deserting it. Therefore, my sweet lady, you deserve superlative admiration, inasmuch as after so many men, women, and aged persons who seemed to enjoy the greatest reputation have been turned to flight, all lying prostrate before the eyes of the world, and this not after a severe onslaught, nor any alarming muster of the enemy's force, but overthrown before the encounter and worsted before the struggle, you on the contrary after so many battles and such large muster of the enemy are so far from being unstrung, or dismayed by the number of your adversities, that you are all the more vigorous, and the increase of the contest gives you an increase of strength."
As she finally goes through her own exile, he further exhorts her to hold fast.
"Rejoice therefore and be glad both for yourself, and for those who have died a blessed death, not in a bed, nor in a house, but in prison, and chains, and torment; and bewail those only who do these things, and grieve for them."
In all of this, St. John Chrysostom reminds her that the struggle for the Christian, the true struggle for the Christian, is the struggle against sin. The worst of the bishops will place themselves in authority in the Church but as we steadfastly struggle against sin, their wickedness will be made known to all. As we struggle ourselves against the evil one, we will shine forth their wickedness. While on this earth, St. Olympias and St. John Chrysostom would not prevail, they most certainly have and did prevail in Heaven. Purified in their struggle against sin, they drew closer to the Will of God experiencing the deification of the soul and while they found themselves out of communion with the Church held captive by wolves in sheep's clothing, they now find themselves fully reconciled, venerated perpetually by the Church that was freed from the bondage of these wolves through their own heavenly intercession. Sts. John Chrysostom and Olympias, intercede for us sinners!
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