Photo of the Day for January 3, 2013

Churches of Belarus (part XXII):  Church of the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul, Mjadz’vedzichy 2011. 

Касьцёлы Беларусі (частка ХХІІ):  касьцёл Сьвятых апосталаў Пятра й Паўла, Мядзьведзічы 2011 год.

It would seem natural if, in wandering off the beaten track and through the small village of Mjadz’vjedzichy in west-central Belarus, one merely stopped to admire the noble 1908 parish church on a rise at the end of the main street, and then passed on.

However, as in so many other cases in Belarus, this place resonates eloquently if silently with the fortitude and the abiding Christian faith of ordinary people.  Soviet rule over Belarus brought the forced closure, desecration, and in more than a few cases the destruction, of most churches — Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.  Some parishes, however, resisted the closure of their churches.  They resisted with such courage and firm faith that the Soviet authorities backed off, although the authorities never stopped trying to hinder and humiliate those priests whom they did not imprison, drive into permanent exile, or murder.

Mjadz’vjedzichy was one such parish.  Mjadz’vjedzichy’s beloved priest, Vatslau Pjantkouski (1902-1991), who had served time in the Soviet GULAG from 1950-1956, set up an underground seminary in Mjadz’vjedzichy in the 1970’s.  Graduates of that seminary include His Excellency Antoni Dzjam’janka, Bishop of Pinsk.

A bow to the parish of Mjadz’vjedzichy and to the memory of Father Vatslau Pjantkouski.