Belarus: Consecration of renovated cathedral, home to 555-year-old wonderworking icon

Zhirovichi, Grodno Province, Belarus, April 29, 2025

Photo: church.by Photo: church.by     

On Bright Saturday, April 26, His Eminence Metropolitan Benjamin of Minsk, primate of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, led the consecration of the renovated Holy Dormition Cathedral at the Holy Dormition-Zhirovichi Monastery.

The renovations and consecration were timed to the 550th anniversary of the miraculous appearance of the Zhirovichi Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is today housed in the monastery cathedral.

Met. Benjamin was concelebrated by monastery abbot His Eminence Archbishop Guriy of Novogrudok and a host of clerics, reports the Belarusian Church.

Photo: church.by Photo: church.by     

During the service, a 5th-year student of the Mink Theological Seminary was ordained to the diaconate. After the prayer behind the ambo, according to tradition, a prayer was read for the breaking of the artos, which was then distributed to the faithful.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Met. Benjamin read prayers for the consecration of the newly constructed iconostases and addressed those gathered with a word of edification.

In conclusion, the archpastors, clergy, and laity proceeded to the monastery garden, where an alley of apple and pear trees was planted in memory of the event. The Zhirovichi Icon revealed itself in 1470 with a bright light shining through the branches of a pear tree.

Photo: church.by Photo: church.by     

The monastery itself was established 50 years later, and construction of the Holy Dormition Cathedral began in 1629. It was subsequently rebuilt and reconstructed several times. It acquired its modern appearance in the second half of the 1800s.

It was at the Zhirovichi Monastery in 1839 that the Lithuanian Uniates signed the act of reunification with holy Orthodoxy, under the much-venerated Metropolitan Joseph (Semashko) of Vilnius and Lithuania. The monastery thus became the first spiritual center in Belarus for the restoration of Orthodox worship.

The Zhirovichi Icon today. Photo: zhirovichi-monastery.by The Zhirovichi Icon today. Photo: zhirovichi-monastery.by     

Read more about the appearance of the Zhirovochi Icon and the foundation of the monastery here.

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4/29/2025

See also
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The Orthodox were terribly persecuted by the secular authorities of Rzeczpospolita, the Catholics and Uniates. People were humiliated, deprived of their civil rights, tortured and killed, but they remained faithful to Orthodoxy.

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