04 Works, Today, June 12th, is Saint Olympias's day, his story in Paintings #163

Unknown artist

St. Olympias the Deaconess icon

Olympias, (sometime between 361 and 368-July 25, 408), also known as Saint Olympias and sometimes known as Olympias the Younger, was a Christian Roman noblewoman of Greek descent.

Olympias was born and raised either in Constantinople or Antioch. She was the daughter born to the Antiochian Greek noblewoman, Alexandra and the wealthy Greek Rhetor, Seleucus. 

Unknown Artist

Saint Theodosius the Great, Emperor of the Romans

She married at a young age to Nebridias who was the treasurer of the Emperor Theodosius the Great.  He died only 20 days after their marriage.. After her husband died and refusing many offers of marriage, she dedicated her life to the church, serving as a deaconess. She would later become a friend of Saint John Chrysostom.

Unknown Artist

Saint John Chrysostom

Mosaic

In the northern tympanum of the Hagia Sophia

Her good works included building a hospital, an orphanage and even looking after Monks who had been led in exile from Nitria. All of this even led to John Chrysostom telling her that she had done almost too much. Her support for John Chrysostom led her to being exiled in 404, which resulted her in losing her house and living the rest of her life in exile at Nicomedia, where she would die on July 25, 408, after a long illness. 

Giovanni Maria De Rossi

St. Olympias, Born - 361

Statue Installed - 1667-1668

Height - 3.1 m. (10ft 4in) 

Saint Peter's Square

Giovanni de' Rossi (21 November 1431 - 1502) was an Italian condottiero and the fifth count of San Secondo. He was nicknamed 'il diseredato' (the disinherited).

He was born in San Secondo and was so different to his father (especially in politics) that he ended up disinheriting him in his 1464. Giovanni was thus exiled with nothing and entered the service of the king of France, though he continued to claim the inheritance which had been denied him. 

Thanks to good relations with Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, Trivulzio returned the fiefdom of San Secondo to Giovanni, by then an old man Between 1497 and 1499 Giovanni and Gian Giacomo served under Louis XII of France and after Ludovico il Moro's fall the French king officially reinstated Giovanni in all his fiefdoms in 1499. He died at San Secondo in 1502 and was succeeded as count by his son Troilo I. The conflict provoked by Pier Maria II's will was finally fully resolved by the Battle of San Secondo in 1522. More on Giovanni Maria De Rossi

The 140 Saint Statues on the Colonnades

Saint Olympias is # 11

Olympias is one of the 140 Colonnade saints which adorn Saint Peter's Square. More on Saint Olympias 

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