ix.

Equal to the Apostles

Act III — The Saint Released

Intro

65 bpm. An enormous, booming church organ fills the stereo field. A massive, deep, authentic Eastern Orthodox choir begins chanting in Church Slavonic.

Verse 1

The metal band enters slowly. Heavy, majestic, and sweeping. The female vocalist sounds peaceful, almost ethereal.

The fever has taken the strength from my bones
I leave this world to the wars and the thrones
My son is a leopard who lives by the blade
But I see the path that the future has made.
Vladimir, my grandson, will look to the cross
He'll finish the puzzle, recover the loss.
The seeds that I planted in Byzantine soil
Will blossom from all of this blood and this toil.

Pre-Chorus

The orchestration swells beautifully

I close my eyes, the rivers run deep.
The widow of Kyiv is going to sleep.

Chorus

The climax of the entire album. A massive wall of symphonic metal, choirs, brass, and soaring lead vocals. Triumphant, holy, and final.

EQUAL TO THE APOSTLES!
Written in the book of the light!
A saint born in the ashes!
A mother who conquered the night!
They'll paint my face in the golden domes!
A protector of children, a keeper of homes!
Forgiven by God for the fire I reigned!
The Saint of Kyiv, forever unchained!

Verse 2

The music drops to a steady, marching beat. The guitars play a major-key version of the riff from Track 2 ("Four Folds")

They took to the river in ninety and eight
The whole of the nation embracing their fate
Vladimir baptized the Rus' in the stream
Fulfilling the hope of his grandmother's dream.
The idols of Perun were thrown in the tide
The old pagan world had officially died.
I watched from the heavens, I watched from above
A legacy built on the hardest of love.

Pre-Chorus

I close my eyes, the rivers run deep.
The widow of Kyiv is going to sleep.

Chorus

Even bigger than the first

Bridge

The metal band drops out entirely. Just the female vocalist and the massive Orthodox choir singing back and forth in a holy call-and-response.

*(Choir)*: Svjataja Ol'ga, moli Boga o nas! (Holy Olga, pray to God for us)
*(Olga)*: I bring the fire, I bring the peace.
*(Choir)*: Svjataja Ol'ga, moli Boga o nas!
*(Olga)*: The cycle of vengeance will finally cease.

Final Epic Climax - 65 bpm. Every instrument, every choir member, maximum volume. A soaring, incredibly emotional final crescendo.

[Outro - 2 full minutes. The metal band plays a slow, crushing, majestic doom outro. Slowly, the instruments fade away. First the guitars, then the drums, then the choir.
The final 30 seconds is just the sound of a single, massive, deep iron church bell tolling slowly. Fading into total silence.]

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The history

969 AD onward · Olga’s death; Vladimir’s 988 conversion of Rus’; her medieval canonisation

Source: Russian Primary Chronicle, entries for 969 and 988; Pateryk of the Kievan Caves Monastery.

Named figures

Olga of Kiev Died 969 AD; canonised as Saint Olga, Equal to the Apostles, in the medieval Russian Orthodox Church
Vladimir the Great Olga’s grandson; baptised the Rus’ in 988; her direct historical legacy

What this song renders

Olga died in Kiev in 969, a year after the Pecheneg siege. The Primary Chronicle records her death and her Christian burial — the first Rus’ ruler buried by Christian rite. She had asked her son to allow a priest to officiate; he reluctantly agreed.

Her direct conversion project failed in her lifetime. Sviatoslav remained pagan and was killed three years after her, in 972. But Vladimir — her grandson, raised partly by her in Kiev — eventually accepted Christianity in 988 and ordered the mass baptism of the Rus’ in the Dnieper. The Chronicle treats this as the fulfilment of Olga’s work.

Her formal canonisation as Isapóstolos — Equal to the Apostles — came later, with the consolidation of medieval Russian Orthodox tradition. The title is rare and reserved for figures whose missionary work fundamentally Christianised a people. Olga shares it with Constantine the Great, Helena, Cyril and Methodius, and Mary Magdalene. The album’s argument is that the title is earned: not despite the four-fold revenge but as part of the same long arc.

Verdict

Olga’s death, her Christian burial, Vladimir’s 988 conversion, and her canonisation as Equal to the Apostles are all documented. The reading of her life as a coherent arc — widow to regent to convert to saint — is the album’s and the Chronicle’s shared frame.

See the full Truth, Saga & Legend entry →