OLIMPIADE, saint. - She is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 17 Dec., but in the Greek Synaxaria on 24 July, which is the true dies natalis. Born in Constantinople in 368 into a noble and illustrious pagan family; having been orphaned, she was brought up as a Christian.
While still young she married a certain Nebridius, and, soon widowed, devoted herself entirely to works of charity, refusing a second marriage despite the pressure of the emperor Theodosius the Great himself. Admired and praised for her virtues, she was enrolled among the deaconesses by the patriarch Nectarius; she became a true model of holiness and also founded a monastery near the Cathedral. Devoted to and a friend of St. John Chrysostom, she shared his sorrows and persecutions during his exile, from which she also received 17 letters. She died at Nicomedia after 408.