Orthodoxy in Belarus

Belarusian lands were baptized mainly simultaneously with other lands of Kievan Rus with a slight delay in the north of the country, although some pagan traditions remained in the Polesie region for a very long time and have survived in a modified form to this day. The Polotsk diocese was founded in 992 , in Turov in 1005 . After the Mongol invasion of Russia and finally by the middle of the XIV century, all Belarusian lands became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , a significant part of the population and elite of which was pagan. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Lithuanian Metropolis existed intermittently, including the dioceses of modern Belarus ^[3] .

In 1385, Grand Duke Jagiello concluded the Union of Krev with Poland, one of the conditions for which was the baptism of pagans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Latin rite. Due to privileges created by Catholics, some of the previously Orthodox gentry converted to Catholicism .

Since 1458, the dioceses of modern Belarus belonged to the Kiev Metropolis (in the union until 1470 ) .

After the Union of Lublin in 1569, simultaneously with the beginning of active polonization, the influence of Catholicism began to increase, and the invited Jesuits played an active role in the spread of Catholicism, among the most striking manifestations of which were the development of education and the construction of churches in the then-advanced baroque style .

In 1596, at the initiative of some Belarusian and Ukrainian Orthodox bishops, as well as with the support of the authorities of the Commonwealth and Rome , the Union of Brest was proclaimed, which laid the foundation for the existence of the Greek Catholic Church in Belarus , which retained its rites, but was subordinate to the Roman pope . A significant part of the Orthodox population and the clergy resisted the planting of the union. The most famous example of resistance is the lynching of the Orthodox inhabitants of Vitebsk over the Archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat Kuntsevich in 1623 . Many Orthodox citizens united in fraternities to protect their interests .

At the time of the prosperity of the Commonwealth , Catholicism, according to some estimates, professed up to 40% of the population of Belarus , mainly in the west of the country and in large cities. At the same time, in 1791, 39% of the population in the territory of the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania were Uniates, 38% were Roman Catholics, 6.5% were Orthodox and 4% were Old Believers ^[4] . The situation radically changed after the partition of the Commonwealth and especially after 1839 , when the Uniate parishes were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Russian Empire. After the reunification of the Uniates with the Orthodox, the gradual decline of Catholicism in the country and the strengthening of the position of Orthodoxy began ^[3] .
The Patriotic War of 1812 caused damage to the Orthodox churches of Belarus - 12% of churches were damaged in the Minsk diocese, and 3% in the Mogilev diaspora ^[5] . The damage to the cult buildings of Belarus was less than on the Great Russian lands occupied by the French (for example, 252 churches out of 400 suffered in the Smolensk province), which was associated with the loyal attitude of both the local population and the clergy to the Napoleonic army [especially in the Mogilev diocese) ^{[5 ]} . During the period of occupation, many monasteries were looted by the French, in some cases church property was requisitioned (primarily food), property of some Orthodox ministers of worship was seized, some church documents were killed, and separate churches were burnt to the ground during the fighting ^[6] . Some monasteries suffered so much that after the war they became parish churches (Simeonovsky in Brest, Uspensky in Mozyr Povet, Troitsky in Drogichin, Blagoveshchensky in Druya) ^[7] . The occupation led to the strengthening of the positions of Uniate and Catholicism: some Orthodox churches were converted to Uniate, and the Catholic bishop J. Dederko occupied the bishop’s house of the Minsk Orthodox bishop, from where he removed a lot of property (he returned some after liberation) ^[8] . After their liberation, in November 1812 they began to transfer Uniate churches, which became during the war, back to Orthodox churches, funds were allocated for restoration (they, however, covered only part of the costs) ^[5] . In 1917, 27 Orthodox monasteries functioned on the territory of the Belarusian provinces (primarily Mogilev) ^[9] .
In the Soviet period, especially since 1929, in Eastern Belarus, as well as in the USSR as a whole, almost all churches were closed, and worshipers were repressed. In the Byelorussian SSR on December 20, 1936, 1371 of the previously operating churches were closed, and services continued only in 74 ^[10] .

• Orthodoxy in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War