OLYMPIAS, Saint
She is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on December 17, but in the Greek Synaxaria on July 24, which is her true *dies natalis*. Born in Constantinople in 368 to a noble and illustrious pagan family, she was orphaned and raised as a Christian.
As a young woman, she married a certain Nebridius, and after becoming a widow early on, she dedicated herself entirely to works of charity, refusing a second marriage despite the pressures of Emperor Theodosius the Great himself. Admired and praised for her virtues, she was enrolled among the deaconesses by Patriarch Nectarius; she became a true model of holiness and also founded a monastery near the Cathedral. Devout and a friend of St. John Chrysostom, she shared in his sorrows and persecutions during his exile, from whom she also received 17 letters. She died in Nicomedia after 408.