The monument to St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk was raised in 2000. The author of the monument is Igor Golubev.
Euphrosyne of Polotsk was a nun, an Orthodox saint, an educator, a public figure of the Polotsk principality period.
She was born at the beginning of the 12th century in the family of Prince Svyatoslav-Georgiy, son of Vseslav the Sorcerer. At birth, she received the name Predslava. At the age of 12, she took ordination under the name Euphrosyne.
In the late 20s of the 12th century, Euphrosyne founded a convent at the Church of the Savior, in Seltso, not far from Polotsk. On her initiative, the architect John erected a stone Saint Tranfiguration Church in the monastery, which has survived until nowadays. For that church, by order of Euphrosyne, the jeweler Lazar Bogsha made an altar cross-reliquary - one of the masterpieces of the early medieval arts and crafts of the Eastern Slavs.
Around 1155, in Polotsk, at the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God, Euphrosyne founded a monastery. For that monastery, the Ephesian Icon of the Mother of God was brought from Byzantium, painted, according to legend, by Luke the Evangelist. The monastery hasn’t survived to this day.
Thanks to the efforts of Euphrosyne, schools, libraries, and scriptoria, places, where books were copied, were created in the monasteries.
At the end of her life, Euphrosyne made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she died in 1173 and was buried in the monastery of Theodosius the Great. Later, her relics were transferred to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, and in 1910 - to Polotsk, to the Monastery of the Savior, founded by Euphrosyne.
In 1984, Euphrosyne was included in the Cathedral of Belarusian Saints. Her memorial day is celebrated on June, 5.
