Belarus celebrates 850th anniversary of the Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polatsk

On March 21, 2011 the Republic of Belarus will issue two souvenir sheets entitled "850th anniversary of the Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk".

The Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk is a unique monument of jeweler's art of ancient Belarus, religious and spiritual treasure of the Belarusians.

The Cross was created on request of St. Euphrosyne as an ark for storage of Christian relics by the Polotsk craftsman Lazar Bohsa in 1161. It is made in the form of a six-pointed cross of height 51,5 cm. First the Cross was kept in Polotsk, then from 1929 to 1941 - in Mogilev Regional Museum. In 1941 it disappeared without a trace during the evacuation of the museum. In 1997 Brest artist-jeweler Nikolai Kuzmich made the full-size copy of the Cross, which was inaugurated and handed over to the Savior and St. Euphrosyne convent in Polotsk.