My hero is St. Efrosinya Polotskaya, because she did a lot for our country, Belarus. She wrote books and taught children. Efrosinya Polotskaya was born in Polotsk. She was the daughter of Prince George Vseslavich and his wife Sofia. Efrosinya Polotskaya was a Princess Predslava and a highly educated woman of her time. She had a good knowledge of geography, Greek, Latin and other sciences.
When Efrosinya was 12, she became a nun. She refused all proposals of marriage and, without her parents' knowledge, ran away to the convent where her aunt was the abbess and became a nun. She opened schools and hospitals. She taught people to read and write. She copied and wrote books by hand. She did many useful things for Belarus. She also built two churches, and one, the St. Spass-Efrosinya convent in Polotsk, still stands today and is considered to be the most precious monument of early Belarusian architecture. And of course, the Cross of St. Efrosinya of Polotsk.
Towards the end of her
life, she undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
where she died sometime after 1167. Her body, after the conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, was carried by the monks to Kiev and deposited there
in the Monastery of the Caves. It was only in 1910 that the relics of the saint
were brought back to her native town of Polatsk.
In my point of view Efrosinya Polotskaya is an outstanding person of Belarus and a hero for the people of our country.
Page created on 4/28/2012 12:00:00 AM
Last edited 4/28/2012 12:00:00 AM