Olga (Kochanovska)

Blessed Olga of the Florivsky Convent in Kyiv (Kochanovska, 1887-1971) was a nun and fool for Christ. She was glorified locally in the Kyiv diocese by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the service of glorification was held on 31 August 2026 in the Ascension (Florivsky) Convent in Kyiv; she is commemorated on 16 (29) October, the day of her repose.

She came from a noble family and received a fine education. After an appearance of the Mother of God she changed her life completely. In 1905, at eighteen, with the blessing of the Glinsk elders, she came to the Florivsky Convent in Kyiv. There she spent more than sixty years in prayer, humility and struggle.

Under the guise of folly and unusual behaviour she hid great gifts of the Holy Spirit: foresight, the gift of healing and of working wonders. In the hard times of Soviet persecution and the closing of churches, the nun Olga was a living hearth of faith; people came to her for spiritual comfort, advice and prayer. She foresaw the day of her death and fell asleep in the Lord on 29 October 1971; she was buried at the Zvirynets cemetery in Kyiv. Before her death she left the instruction that people should come to her grave, promising to pray for everyone who remembered her.

The Synod established her veneration and approved the icon, the service and the akathist. The rite of glorification was served by Metropolitan Onuphry on the feast of Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, the patronal feast of the convent. Her life was read by Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshhorod.