Spaso-Efrosinievsky Women's Monastery
polotsk, Vitebsk region, Belarus
Description:
The Savior-Efrosinievsky Monastery was founded by Princess Polotsk in the XII century, presumably in 1125. The princess was 20 years old at the time, but she was already well known for her spiritual feat. Having heard the news of the foundation of the monastery, girls of different origins began to flock to her, the Monk gladly received them all and helped her to embark on the spiritual path.
At the same time, she took care in the external improvement of the monastery. A stone temple was built in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, which has survived to this day. In 1161, some priceless relics were transferred to this temple for “eternal storage”. For example, the cross-ark, which contains a particle of the life-giving tree with a drop of the blood of the Savior, a particle of the stone of the tomb of the Lord and others.
Today it is almost the only preserved temple of the XII century in Belarus with almost completely surviving frescoes. For more than 50 years St. Euphrosyne ruled the monastery, but as we see, the memory of it lives on for centuries.
The monastery was waiting for the test. Polotsk as an important strategic point of the Middle Ages repeatedly became a place of discord and wars. Since the end of the XVI century, since the transfer of Polotsk to the possession of the Commonwealth, the time of decline began for the monastery.
Until the XIX century, the monastery was in the possession of the Catholic Jesuit order. Only in 1832 the monastery complex returned to the Orthodox and the relics of St. Euphrosyne were transferred here from the Kiev Lavra - this is the main value of the monastery. Since the end of the XIX century, the monastery flourished again, the monastery was noticeably transformed and decorated. New buildings of residential buildings, bell towers appeared, a little later the Cross-Vozdvizhensky Cathedral was erected on donations.
Nowadays, the bright and beautiful monastery complex is a popular place of pilgrimage, many people really find healing here.