Saint Eupraxia of Pskov

Euphrosyne of Pskov (secular name Euphrosyne; died May 8, 1243, Otepää, present-day Estonia) was presumably the daughter of Prince Rogvolod Borisovich of Polotsk. She is venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church as a pious princess, with her feast day celebrated on October 16 (according to the Julian calendar). She was born, possibly in the 1170s and no later than 1181, and was raised at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Polotsk. At approximately age 30, she married Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Pskov, likely becoming his second wife. Prince Yaroslav fled Pskov for Livonia, where he married a German woman. Alongside German knights, he repeatedly attacked Russian lands, capturing Izborsk in 1231. Following her husband's departure, Euphrosyne led an exceptionally pious life; in 1243, she founded the Convent of St. John the Forerunner on the banks of the Velikaya River and became its first abbess. That same year, she was invited to Livonia to meet with her former husband and negotiate her dowry, where she was murdered on May 8 in the town of Odenpäh by her stepson, the son of Yaroslav and his German wife. She was buried in the cathedral of the monastery she had established. The tradition of local veneration for Euphrosyne began when the Bishop of Novgorod recognized the miraculous nature of an icon placed over her grave. She is named as "Saint and Pious Princess Euphrosyne of Pskov" in the 1734 list of the Description of Russian Saints (pp. 264–265); she does not appear in earlier lists. The image of the righteous princess has been preserved on two icons, one of which depicts her praying alongside Saint John the Forerunner and the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.