Venerable Sophia, Princess of Slutsk

Sophia, born in 1585, was the last of the Olelkovich princes of Slutsk (in today's Belarus) and heiress to the principalities of Slutsk and Kopyl. Her guardians arranged her marriage to Janusz Radziwiłł, a Calvinist, celebrated in Brest in 1600.

In the years after the Union of Brest (1596) she supported the Orthodox brotherhood of Slutsk and obtained a royal charter guaranteeing Orthodox worship in the town; she also built churches and gave generously. Some historians dispute her confession. She died in childbirth in 1612, aged about 26, and was canonized in 1984; her relics are in the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Minsk.