Faranak Amidi
speaker
1,355 appearances
14 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 29 Aug
Faranak Amidi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 5.
Appearances
Why is that?
Because she traveled to Constantinople, the capital of the mighty Byzantium Empire in modern day Istanbul.
And she is believed to accept baptism from Constantine, Emperor Constantine himself.
And apparently, according to one of the legends, Constantine offered marriage, but she remained true to her widowhood.
It was 964.
It is believed that she converted into Christianity and remained a Christian until her death.
But her son, Svetoslav, remained a pagan.
And it was her grandson, Volodymyr, who then accepted Christianity as an official religion of Kievan principality.
So Olga, as a saint, as this powerful female icon and legend, doesn't only belong to Ukrainians.
I mean, the Russians also celebrate her womanhood, as you might say.
But what does she mean to Ukrainians?
You probably saw the picture of the statue of Princess Olga in flag jacket.
Olga is one of the first women
original Christian rulers of what is now Ukraine.
For Scandinavians, Olga is theirs.
She is Helga.
And Olga herself probably wouldn't know who Ukrainians or Russians of today are because she wasn't speaking anything resembling the language of either countries.
It is a shared history of shared origin history.
Thank you very much, Irina.
That was fascinating.
Showing 661–680 of 1,355 · page 34 of 68
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