St Olympias

Olympias was born into a rich and important family.  Both her parents died when she was only little and she was given to a very kind woman, Theodosia, to be taken care of.  She married an important man but he died soon after they were married.  Her parents had left her a lot of money and, because of that, many people tried to get her marry again, but she would always say no.  She even had her money taken from her until she was 30 because she would not marry.  Olympias only wanted to serve God and take care of His poor people.  She was good friends with St. John Chrysostom, who became Archbishop of the Church in Constantinople, and he helped her to get closer to Jesus and serve Him. When her money was returned to her, she used it to build hospitals, orphanages, a chapel and to take care of monks who had nowhere else to live.  A man named Arsacius wanted to be Archbishop of the Church, and he took the place of St. John Chrysostom, kicking him out of Constantinople.  Olympias helped many Christians who were being kicked out of Constantinople by the new Archbishop, giving them a place to live and food.  She refused to accept the new Archbishop; she believed he was not ruling the Church the way God wanted to and, because of this, she was also kicked out of Constantinople.  The Archbishop stopped all the good things that Olympias was doing and she lived the rest of her life not being able to return to her home.  She spent the rest of her life in prayer being guided and comforted by St. John Chrysostom through letters, helping her to stay close to God.