A religious procession to mark the 100th anniversary of the transfer of Euphrosyne of Polotsk's relics will take place in the Vitebsk region

May 31, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. About a hundred pilgrims from Vitebsk parishes will retrace the very path by which the relics of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk returned to their homeland exactly one hundred years ago. The procession, timed to the 100th anniversary of the transfer of the shrine from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Spaso-Yefrosinievsky Monastery, will begin early in the morning of June 1, Archpriest Alexander (Rakhunok) told a BELTA correspondent. The route is designed to pass through all settlements that in May (old style) 1910 reverently welcomed the relics of the holy intercessor. For example, in the village of Lovsha, a church has been preserved to this day, in which a Divine Liturgy was celebrated one hundred years ago in honor of the significant event. The same prayer will be offered by the participants of the procession. It is expected that on June 4, the travelers will arrive in Polotsk to join hundreds of pilgrims from other parts of Belarus who have arrived in the ancient city to take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the centenary and to venerate the relics of Euphrosyne of Polotsk on the day of her commemoration - June 5 (May 23, old style). Euphrosyne of Polotsk was the daughter of the Prince of Polotsk, a nun and enlightener, and the founder of Polotsk monasteries. At the end of her life, she made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she died in 1173. Her body was transported to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and for 700 years the Lavra kept the relics of the saint. The first petition from priests requesting the transfer of the relics from Kyiv to Euphrosyne's homeland in Polotsk dates back to the 1830s, but it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the Tsar's permission was obtained for the transfer of the relics. The ceremony of transfer began on April 19, 1910, in Kyiv and ended almost a month later, on May 23, in the Polotsk Spaso-Yefrosinievsky Monastery. The holy relics were transported first by steamship up the Dnieper to Orsha, and from Orsha on foot through Vitebsk to Polotsk. -0-