On Saturday, July 9, in the Jesuit parish of St. Ladislaus in Vitebsk (Belarus), the newly constructed church of St. Ignatius Loyola was consecrated during a solemn liturgy. The act of consecration was performed by mons. Aleg Butkevich, the bishop of Vitebsk diocese. The Mass was concelebrated by the Provincial of Northern Polish province Zbigniew Leczkowski SJ and about twenty other priests who attended the ceremony, while the whole church was filled with believers – parishioners and guests.

Fr Leczkowski brought a precious gift for the parish community – the relics of St. Ignatius, which will accompany the faithful in prayers offered to God through the intercession of the holy founder of the Jesuit Order.

Father Victor Zhuk SJ is the pastor of the parish, and the next day he made the solemn religious profession of four vows in the Society of Jesus in the newly consecrated church. Father Klemens Werth SJ, who is also the treasurer of the diocese, was responsible for the construction of the building, which includes not only the house of prayer, but also the parish premises and the Jesuit community quarters.

Father Zhuk recalled that the solemn event takes place during the Ignatian Jubilee year. There are churches in Belarus that are named after other Jesuit saints – St. Francis Xavier, St. Andrew Bobola and St. Stanislaus Kostka, but so far there has been no temple dedicated to the founder of the Jesuits. As the pastor of the parish reminded, “in the past in Vitebsk there was St. Joseph church, built by the Jesuits, where they there until 1820, and now, two centuries later, although in a completely different form, the presence of the Society of Jesus in Vitebsk is renewed. We want to feel like heirs of a very rich tradition and work for God's glory nowadays.”

The first Jesuits came to Vitebsk in 1637 and operated there until the order was expelled by the tsarist authorities in 1820. After World War II, few Jesuits conducted apostolic work in Belarus. The current activity of the Jesuits in Vitebsk gives hope for the dynamic development of the presence of the Society of Jesus in this region.

Wojciech Żmudziński SJ