Efrosinya Polotskaya

Efrosinya Polotskaya (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki)

Nobody will deny that there are very many heroes among women. My woman hero is Efrosinya Polotskaya. I do hope that you have already been able to hear this name as she is well-known not only in Belarus but all over the world. She is considered to be the patron saint of my native land by both catholic and orthodox churches. She is really a saintly woman. She was one of the greatest Belarussian enlighteners of the 12th century as she was a philosophical and spiritual leader in Polotsk principality of that time.

She was born in a very famous noble family in Polotsk in 1100. She was the granddaughter of the famous Vseslav Charodey. She was a smart and diligent girl who was eager to study and learn more about the world. She had a good knowledge of Greek, Latin, geography, mythology and other sciences. She was a highly educated person of that period. Her desire for knowledge appeals to me.

She was expected to be a duchess, to wait for her prince to come back from war, to bring heirs to the throne, to wear sable furs and gold... But at the age of 12 she acted her own way: refused to marry and went to the monastery to hide there and find a shelter, took the veil and became a nun under the name of Efrosinya. She read a lot and rewrote books there in order to sell them and earn money for the poor. She taught the girls to read and write and to do house work such as cooking, sewing and embroidery. Once having dreamt of an angel who told her to leave this monastery cell, this fragile woman went to the village, having taken nothing but few most precious books… Thus when she wasn't even twenty, she became Mother Superior of the Convent. She stayed alone as the prince of Kiev sent all Efrosinya’s family to a faraway Byzantium. But despite her loneliness she managed to achieve something that no one before could do. She brought light and peace in times of feudal wars. “She did not wish to see animosity between dukes, nobles, peasants, but wished everyone harmony…”

Efrosinya Polotskaya (http://polotsk.nm.ru/raz/5.htm)

I admire her for her dedication to God and devotion to poor people, her readiness and desire to help everyone in spite of their origin. Efrosinya never treated people as rich and poor. Her contemporaries put it as follows: “Every of her actions had a touch of sanctity and grace.” And she shared that touch with those who came her way. She did a lot of charitable work which included opening schools and hospitals. She opened the monastery school for children of Polotsk, gave classes to women in various sciences. She taught people to respect each other. Besides, she founded the Spass-Efrosinya church in Polotsk. Her kindness and aspiration for help won people's hearts and they treated her as a saint. She became the first woman to be made holy in Belarus and among Slavs.

The cross of Saint Efrosinya (http://polotsk.nm.ru/ephr.htm)

God blessed Efrosinya through all her life. Her dream came true before she died. Not long before her death in 1173, Efrosinya decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Some months later she got seriously ill and died. She was buried there but 12 years later the body was transported to Kiev and then to Polotsk to be reburied in Spass-Efrosinya church which she had founded.

Efrosinya did not leave only good deeds and the reputation of a great educator behind her. There exists somewhere the Cross of the Saint Efrosinya – the most prominent of all Belarusian sacred treasures. "On her request in 1161 a famous jeweller, Lasar Bogsha, created a Cross to symbolize Christianity in Belarus and the unity of the nation. Efrosinya Polotskaya raised her voice against intestine strife which could destroy the state. The Cross was decorated with gold, silver and precious stones. There were icons of saints, the founders of Christianity, Efrosinya and her parents on it."

June 5 is Efrosinya Polotskaya Memory Day in my country. Main celebrations of the Efrosinya Polotskaya Memory Day take place in the monastery founded by her in Polotsk in the 12th century. Hundreds of pilgrims come to this nunnery that holds the incorruptible relics of the saint. People ask for cure of diseases and solace from sorrow. Only once a year, on June 5th, Efrosinya Polotskaya’s relics are brought out of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Church. A cross procession led by Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk takes place.