The council of bishops will take part in the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Euphrosyne of Polotsk's cross

September 19, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Bishops of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, will take part in the celebration of the 850th anniversary of the creation of Euphrosyne of Polotsk's cross in Polotsk, the Spaso-Evfrosinievsky Convent in Polotsk, where a copy of the lost relic is kept, informed a BELTA correspondent.

On September 26, the Patriarchal Exarch will hold a solemn all-night vigil, co-served by the Cathedral of Bishops, and will perform the Exaltation of the Cross ceremony - this will be the culmination of the festivities that have been held throughout September in Polotsk and Novopolotsk. In neighboring cities, closely connected not only by geography but also by the history of the Polotsk land, educational talks and lectures dedicated to the history of the creation of Euphrosyne's cross are being held. Exhibitions of literature on the history of Orthodoxy in the Polotsk lands, on the life and righteous deeds of Saint Euphrosyne, have been organized in local libraries.

The altar cross of Euphrosinia of Polotsk is an Orthodox shrine. According to historical chronicles, Euphrosinia commissioned it in 1161 for the Church of the Transfiguration, built according to her design, from a Polotsk (or according to some accounts, a Kyiv) master, Lazar Bohshe. The height of the cross was 51.8 cm, the length of the upper crossbar - 14 cm, the lower one - 21 cm. The base was made of cypress. 11 gold plates, decorated with cloisonné enamels, were attached to the front and back surfaces of the shrine. The sides were decorated with silver plates. The cross was adorned with precious stones and framed with a string of pearls. The images on it represented almost the entire history of the New Testament. Particles of the True Cross with drops of His blood, a stone from the tomb of the Mother of God, particles of the relics of Saints Stephen and Panteleimon, and the blood of Saint Demetrius gave the cross special value. A curse of non-alienation was imposed on the cross: "...may it never be taken out of the monastery, nor sold, nor given away. If anyone disobeys and takes it out of the monastery, may the holy cross not help him in this life or in the next, may he be cursed by the Holy Life-Giving Trinity and the holy fathers... and may he share the fate of Judas..." - is engraved on the side edges of the cross.

Until the 13th century, the cross was kept in Polotsk, in the church of Abbess Euphrosinia, then it passed from hand to hand as a military trophy: first it ended up in Smolensk, then in Moscow. In 1563, Ivan the Terrible, after a successful campaign against Polotsk, returned it to the Church of the Transfiguration. In 1928, the cross was transported from Polotsk to Minsk, and in 1929 - to Mogilev, where it was kept in a safe room of the Mogilev Regional Committee and City Committee of the Party. The cross was lost during the Great Patriotic War, but enthusiasts are still searching for it.

During the celebration of the millennium of the Polotsk Diocese and the Orthodox Church in Belarus in 1992, it was decided to recreate the cross. The recreation of the shrine was entrusted to the Brest jeweler-enameler, member of the Union of Artists of Belarus, Nikolai Kuzmich. On August 24, 1997, Metropolitan Filaret consecrated the copy of the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, which is currently kept in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Polotsk Euphrosyne Women's Monastery.-0-