Polotsk – City of Knowledge. Part 2. Spaso-Efrosinjan monastery and walking around the city

Spaso-Efrosinyevsky Monastery, where we came after dating the Sofia Cathedral, Borisoglebsky Stone, Polotsk Street, was founded about 1125 by Prince Efrosini Polotsk (1104-1173), the Belarusian saint, canonized both Orthodox and the Catholic Church.

By this time, the children and grandchildren of Prince-Wolver Veslav Clavius ​​finally accepted Christianity, declaring his childbirth heaven patrons of the Holy Brothers Boris and Gleb. One of the traditions "Rogvodovaya grandchildren" (Falotian princes named the name of the ROGVOLOD, named, the kissing of the cross when entering and when concluding the contract between Polishanians and Prince. However, the genus retained the custom of calling children with Slavic names, and after baptism, every princess or princess had two names. So Efrosinia Polotsk, at birth, received the name of the preylava, with baptism – Paraskeva, and when he knead the nun – Efrosinya. Her father, Svyatoslav-Georgii, was the younger son of all the sorcerer, and his mother, Sofia, the eldest daughter Vladimir Monomakh and the female line of the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor. Thanks to the mother of the preylava got a good education, knew a diploma. According to the tradition of that time with the onset of perforacing in 12 years, it was waiting for a dynastic marriage. But she escaped from the house to the monastery to her aunt-need, begging to give refuge and cut into a nun. Pivot historians believe that a similar decision was influenced by the well-known Princess history of the life of the Byzantine aristocrats, went to the monastery for the sake of spiritual development, the dissemination of knowledge, gaining authority in the role of founders and prisons of both female and men’s monasteries.

Having received a tonsure, Efrosinia was supposed to, in accordance with the rules developed for the nun aristocrats by the Byzantine printed Irina Dooka, at the first stage to live a filmmaker (a hostel form of monastery life), to get acquainted with the basics of monastics, and then leave "in the shutter". For "shutter" Sofia Cathedral was chosen. (In the photo – the most preserved part of the cathedral remaining from the construction of the XII century).

She asked permission from Polotsk bishop Ilii right to live in the cathedral "in the globet (basement) stone". At that time, the Slavic lands from Byzantium came ascetic-mystical practice Isicham, when monks and nuns were removed "in the shutter" In the caves and there, with the help of spiritual exercises based on the supercontrol of mental activity, reached unity with Divine Wisdom. Perhaps, "Globet stone" was a kind of cave symbol. Then the Verigs wearable can be explained not how much fanaticism, how much is the fulfillment of certain spiritual practices. It is known for certain that "Shutter" Princess fasted and rewritten religious books, shifting the highest level of calligraphic skills.

These books were distributed through the monasteries and temples of Polotsk Principality. Effrosiya Polotsk herself read a lot. She constantly received from Constantinople, from his native aunt, the former married to the son of the Byzantine emperor, religious and secular books. Among the secular literature were the works of antique classics, collections of aphorisms. Part of the books of Princess left in his own book collection, a part was on the creation of a library of the Sofia Cathedral. During "shutter" Reverend Efrosinia "Headally absorbed the book mind and knew all the books".

Finally, it’s time to climb the third step of the monastic life of the aristocrats – to establish the monastery and head it. According to the vidence of Efrosini Polotsk (the first known life is dated to the end of the XII century), the Angel appeared in a dream and pointed out the place of the monastery 2 kilometers from Polotsk in the village of Selo, where an ancient Village Spasskaya Church was on the right bank of the river.

The monastery was founded in honor of the Heavenly patroness of Princess, Efrosigny Alexandria, and was the property of Polotsky princes. (Plinfi images of a princess sign of a trident were discovered on Plinfi). In the church plan, the Eposhrinian monastery, according to historians, was subordinate to the Konstantinople Patriarch directly. Immediately, on the opening of the monastery, Rev. Efrosignan organized a small school for girls and female lairshiks, herself taught the literacy of the nun. Later, learning the literacy of the Polokhank entered the duty of nuns the monastery, among whom were girls and women of various social layers. Life writes that Reverend "had such a gift to spiritual: whom she looked at the eyes of their own, immediately recognized. Can he be a vessel chosen for the Lord". Such "Selected vessels" The native sister of the ultrayard Gorodislava, which he personally made a tonsure and ordered Evdokia, and Kuzina Zvenislav, who received the monastic name Eupraxia. Heself, Rev. Efrosinia continued to engage in the correspondence of books and take care of the well-being of the monastery.

She dreamed of raising instead of a wooden Spasskaya Church stone, but political events were prevented. Polotsky princes, including the father of Princess, in 1130 they refused to oppose Polovtsy together with all the prince’s squads of Kyivan Rus, and Kyiv Prince Mstislav sent them to families in "link" In Byzantium, putting on the Polotsky throne of his son. Of course, the cash infusion in the abode of the prince of the treasury stopped. In 1140, in many respects, thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Efrosiny, Polotsk, her natives returned to Polotsk, took the right position, and gradually the material well-being Residents were restored. In 1151, the superior ordered Polotsk architect John to build an Spassk Church as the Cathedral Monastery Temple. Works lasted until 1161. The church is rather unusual for the Belarusian cult builds of the XII century and is "folk" Recycling Byzantine Stilia. On the sides of the choirs of the temple were equipped with two small cruciform cells for the prisons and her sisters Evdokia.

The temple was painted in 1161 by arteel of local artists headed by the invited Byzantine Master. Painting was carried out on raw plaster and a limited set of color pigments was used. On the frescoes depicted scenes from the Bible and the Gospel, the Virgin, the prophets, saints, among whom Efrosinia Alexandria.

In the 1154-1155, Efrosinia Polotsk, following the example of the mostedy queen Irina, the Men’s Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary also founded the Men’s Monastery. She sent a delegation with rich gifts to Constantinople and requests for a new abode an ancient Ephesus icon of the Mother of God. The request was performed: Patriarch of Luke Chrysierg handed over to Polotsk icon, written by Evangelist Luke. Then with this icon of the monks of the Bogoroditsky Monastery on Tuesdays, on the day of the shrine, all Polotsky temples were accounted for. In 1239, the icon was as a wedding gift, Polotsk Princess Alexander, who married Alexander Nevsky. Now the Ephesian Icon of the Mother of God is located in the temple of Alexander Nevsky in the Istrinsky district of the Moscow region.

Let’s return to the territory of the Spaso-Efrosignan Monastery. Near the spas temple stands "Warm church".

In it, the showcase lie trials of Saint Efrosiny Polotsk. Between the showcase and the floor of the small "corridor". As the nun-minister of the church told, for healing from various diseases, it is necessary to spend three times on this corridor. However, he has another feature: when it is crawling for the first time, be sure to hit the showcase part of the body, where there is still no obsessive disease or deep unconscious psychological problems.

And in this church, the crossed, built in 1893-1897, are the relics of the Holy.

The life of Eposiny Polotsk ended in 1173 during pilgrimage in Jerusalem, where she was accompanied by Brother Prince David and Kuzina Euptraction. His own brainchild, monastery, she left Evdokia sister. Holy was buried in the abode of Theodosius the Great. In 1187, her dust, in order to save him from the Muslim troops who took Jerusalem, Sultan Salah-hell-Dina, monks of the monastery transported to Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. In 1910, the relics of Saint Efrosiny Polotsk returned "home", in Savier-Efrosin’evsky Monastery.

I was so impressed by a visit to the monastery that when we passed the bridge over the half, in the outlines of the river semi-shot ice "saw" Women’s figure in monastic robe.

Returning to the secular Polotsk, we continued to get acquainted with his sights. One of them is a monument of 22 letters of the Belarusian alphabet "In short", or "near NEFO"(non-voltage), located on the boulevard of Francis Prospect.

Academician E. F. Karsky in the I Whether "Belarusian", published in 1903, wrote that brief sound "W" (pronounced and hears as mean between "W" and "v") was known for the goves of Smolensk-Polotsky curvice and handwritten documents of the XIII century. In modern written Belarusian language "in short" contributed in 1870 at the proposal of ethnographer and philologist. Bessonova, headed in 1865-1866, the Vilen Arkhegraph Commission.

There, on the boulevard – another iconic object, a memorable sign "Polotsk – Geographic Center of Europe".

Belarusian scientists and geodesists, adopting Europe as a holistic object, including the White and Baltic Sea and located along their coast of the island, with the help of aerospace shooting and powerful computers identified the exact coordinates of the European Center – 55 degrees 30 minutes of northern latitude and 28 degrees 48 minutes of Eastern longitude. They came to the place where he was in 2003 a memorial sign.

Francis Scharin himself (1499-1551), in honor of which the prospectus, a native of Polotsk, a translator of the Bible and Psalmier from the Latin, Greek and Church Slavonic, who commanded "Tisnuti" books "Slovenian language", the creator of the printed Belarusian font based on handwritten Cyrillic, a certified doctor who won in the 20s of the XVI century of the dispute with the paracetse itself and considered that "Every person needs to read, for reading – the mirror of our life, the cure for the soul", looked at Polotsk, shelf and guests of the city with a high pedestal of the monument. Initial education Skorgin received in Polotsk, at school at the monastery of Bernardians. In 2011, archaeologists on the basis of the plan had discovered the remains of its foundation and various church utensils. The life of the first-satellite after school was already in Krakow, Padua, Prague, Wilna.

In Polotsk, a typography museum you can see high-quality copies of the books of Francis Skorne.

As well as exposure of equipment of ancient printing houses.

Original publication of books of Francis Skorina are located in Minsk, in the National Library. In his comments, Francis Skarin’s published 23 books has always called for readers to wisdom. "She is the Mother of all kind cases, teacher of all kind skill! Truly in it is a reasonable spirit – a matter, one, diverse, meaningful, moving, unknowable, sweet, clean, permanent, kind!"