Venerable Euphrosyne of Polotsk

Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk (born Princess Predslava, c. 1104) was a great-granddaughter of St. Vladimir the Great and granddaughter of Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. At twelve, refusing an arranged marriage, she secretly took monastic vows. She lived in a cell at Polotsk's Cathedral of St. Sophia copying manuscripts, then around 1128 founded the Convent of the Savior near Polotsk and later a men's monastery — centers of learning in medieval Rus'. She commissioned the famed Cross of Euphrosyne (1161), Belarus's most treasured relic, and obtained the venerated Ephesian icon of the Mother of God from Constantinople. She died in 1173 on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; her relics were later moved to the Kyiv Caves Lavra and returned to Polotsk in 1910. She is venerated as the heavenly patroness of Belarus.