Product Description
Saint Euphrosyne. This finely carved and painted wooden figure depicts the saint with her hands clasped before her while holding prayer beads and a cross. She wears a black "apostolnik" (veil) with a gold cross and an "epanokamelavkion" (long stole) over her full-length inner rasa.
Saint Euphrosyne was born around 1102 and named Predslava. She was the daughter of Prince George Vselavich, second son of Vselav the Sorcerer, of the Ruriks, members of which were the dukes of the principality of Polotsk (today Belarus). She entered the convent at the age of twelve, and received monastic tonsure with the name Euphrosyne. She lived in the basement of Sophia Cathedral. Earning and distributing money by copying books, she eventually helped to build the Church of the Holy Savior in 1161, which still stands today. She was buried at the Russian monastery of of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1167. After the conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, she was taken to the Kiev Caves Monastery, and finally, to Polotsk in 1910, to the monastery she founded. She was glorified as a patroness of women's monasticism. She is the patron saint of Belarus, where there is a convent and a church in her name.
Orthodox monks and nuns lead identical spiritual lives, living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Orthodox monastics do not have "orders" as in the Catholic Church.
Carved and painted in 1996, probably in Sergiev-Posad. Signed by the artist. Bit of wear, otherwise fine. 10¼" in height. 1 only.
