St Eupraxia, Princess of Pskov

Commemorated on October 16



Saint Eupraxia, Princess of Pskov, in the world Euphrosyne, was the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogvolod Borisovich, and an aunt to the holy Prince Dovmont-Timothy (May 20). She was the wife of the Pskov prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Prince Yaroslav fled from Pskov to Livonia and there married a German. Together with the Teutonic knights he made incursions several times upon the Russian lands, and in 1231 he seized Izborsk. After the departure of her husband, Euphrosyne turned to deeds of piety. In the year 1243, she built a monastery on the banks of the River Velika named for St John the Forerunner, and became its abbess.


Invited to Livonia for a meeting with her former husband in the city of Odenpa (Bear's Head), she was murdered (May 8, 1243) by a stepson, more accurately, the son of Yaroslav by his German wife. She was buried at the cathedral of the monastery she founded. Ten days after the death of St Eupraxia, a miracle occurred over her grave, when myrrh issued from an icon of the Savior. The icon was called "The myrrh-bearing Savior". The countenance of the righteous princess was preserved on two icons. On the one she is depicted at prayer with St John the Forerunner and the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The other icon with her likeness is beside the wonderworking icon of the Savior.


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