What you need to know about the Polotsk Spaso-Euphrosyne Monastery

The centuries-old Polotsk Monastery houses the incorrupt body of the first canonized saint of Belarus, as well as items no less revered by Orthodox believers. The white-stone complex, consisting of a church, a bell tower, a refectory and residential buildings, is one of the oldest in all of Eastern Europe. Its construction took almost two hundred years.

Euphrosyne, secular name Predslava, contributed to the construction of the monastery. The territory on which it was established appeared three times in the dreams of the young nun.

In addition to the relics of Saint Euphrosyne, the temple carefully preserves a copy of the priceless cross of the monastery's founder, lost during the Great Patriotic War, created by a Brest jeweler. There is also a silver reliquary, recreated from sketches from the early 20th century, Euphrosyne's chains - iron chains worn for humility, two copies of the Ephesian Icon of the Mother of God from the 16th and 20th centuries, and an icon of the Krasnostok Mother of God from the 17th century.  

The relics of saints are kept in specific repositories of different sizes – reliquaries. To preserve the life-giving particles, of which there are about three hundred, arks were created.

One of the reliquaries contains particles of the relics of the Optina elders and the venerable Kiev-Pechersk fathers. Among them is part of the remains of the Righteous Virgin Juliana, a Belarusian princess from the Olshansky family. She lived only 16 years, but was wise and righteous. A century later, her grave was destroyed, but the body in it remained incorrupt. It was transferred to a shrine, after which miracles began to appear.

Particles of the relics of God's saints, including Sophia the Righteous, patroness of Orthodoxy and protector of the land of Slutsk, and Blessed Matrona of Moscow, who is called Matronushka, are in the second ark. The birth of the seer, miracle worker and healer appeared to her mother in the form of a white bird with closed eyes. The girl was born with closed eyelids.

The third ark preserves particles of the relics of the saints and elders Glinsky. The most unusual relics were fragments of the relics of the Forerunner, Prophet and Lord's Baptist John - the most revered saint after the Mother of God.