Churches of Belarus (part XLIII): Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, Kazhan Haradok 2013. Цэрквы Беларусі (частка XLIII): царква Сьвятога Мікалая, Кажан Гарадок 2013 год.
Revered in western and eastern Christianity, St. Nicholas has two feast days. His winter-time feast day — December 6 in the western Christian calendar, December 19 in the Orthodox calendar — is associated with his charity: coming to the rescue of the poor and those in distress. His spring feast day — May 9 in the western Christian calendar, May 22 in the Orthodox calendar — is associated in the west with the arrival of his relics in Bari after being stolen from Myra in Asia Minor. In the Belarusian Orthodox tradition, however, the spring feast is celebrated in connection with St. Nicholas as the patron saint of the common man, of those who work the land, of spring crops, of horses and other farm animals. Thus in many ways St. Nicholas takes on the protective role which pre-Christian Slavs attributed to their god Vjaljes (Вялес).
The church of St. Nicholas in Kazhan Haradok in the central Pripet area of Belarusian Polesia is an outstanding example of wooden church architecture in Belarus. St. Nicholas was originally constructed in 1818 as a Greek-Catholic church, then suffered the same fate as other Greek-Catholic churches when the Russian Empire suppressed the Greek Catholic Church and converted its churches to Russian Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, the parish of St. Nicholas retains a vigorous and joyful reverence and openness to outsiders similar to what one finds in the churches of eastern Stolin District on the other side of the Pripet River.
