Trwać i wytrwać ...Prześladowany Kościół katolicki na Białorusi i jego życie

Persecuted Catholic Church in Belarus and its Life in the Period of Communist Totalitarianism on the Example of a Parish in Świr

Summary: Martyrdom of the Catholic Church in Belarus, with various intensity, lasted continuously almost throughout the 20th century until the fall of the Soviet block. Structures of the Catholic Church were systematically destroyed, churches were liquidated, priests and believers were deported to camps. In the period between 1945 and 1950, the government arrested about 80% priests in Belarus.
Among the few priests who were allowed to perform the function of the priest was Rev. Kazimierz Szyłejko from the Świr parish. After his death in 1962, the struggle against the Church in the USSR became more intense, and the Świr parish was closed by force. Liturgical equipment was stolen and the building was devastated. For a long time, the church in Świr remained empty. In the 1970s, the inhabitants initiated action for return and opening of the church. The government refused to return the church, turning it into a branch of weapons plant. Catholics at Świr did not surrender, and continued the struggle for regaining the church; their perseverance was awarded with returning the church. On July 8, 1990, Rev. Wojciech Lemański came to Świr from Poland, from the Warsaw diocese. Soon, the interior of the church was ordered, so that on July 21, 1990 the church could be sacrificed again at the presence of the believers, and opened for worship.
In the period where the Świr parish remained without a priest and the church was closed, the evangelization mission was performed under cover by sisters from the Congregatio Filiarum Mariae Immaculatae, including s. Helena Tyszko, s. Jadwiga Subko and s. Apolonia Sienkiewicz. Among the most important tasks of the nuns, who at the time acted in complete conspiracy, was teaching the Gospel. In 1992, in response to the great needs of the parish community at Świr, the Congregation directed s. Antonina Elżbieta Bigaj to work at the parish preaching and Catechism lessons.
The 550th anniversary of the St. Nicholas parish at Świr, celebrated in 2001, is a testimony to perseverance of the Catholic Church in Belarus and its revival. The community of Świr Catholics at the 21st century builds on the testimony left to them by the twentieth-century "martyrs for faith".

Peregrinus Cracoviensis, 2004, z.15, s. 75-92.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1425-1922

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