The summer of 1910 saw one of the most significant religious events in the former Russian Empire: the translation of the relics of St Euphrosyne (1110-1173) from Kiev to her native Polotsk. Euphrosyne is the only East Slav virgin saint, and is especially venerated in her native Belarus. The translation attracted crowds of pilgrims from all parts of the then Russian Empire.

The event is documented by a series of glass slides, which forms part of a wider collection presented to Lambeth Palace Library in 2008 by the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association. Some of the photographs may have been taken or collected by the Revd. H.J. Fynes-Clinton, founder of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union, when he was in Russia before the 1917 revolution, serving as a tutor to a Russian noble family.

The photographs of the Imperial Family may have been provided by his friend Sidney Gibbes, later Archimandryte Nicholas Gibbes, who was English language tutor to the Tsesarevich Alexei and the Grand Princesses. However, most of the collection features images of churches, monasteries and other examples of Russian secular and church architecture. There are also scenes of everyday life and religious practice, creating an interesting and often captivating insight into the last days of pre-revolutionary Russia, a state which at the time stretched from present day central Poland in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east.