Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Church on Nemiga

Aug 18, 2017 12:34 Last edit: Jan 16, 2018 20:48

Brief information

Date of foundation- 1633
Construction- 1633-1642
Diocese- Minsk
Architectural style - Vilna Baroque
Relics and shrines- Minsk icon Mother of God, relics of Sofia Slutskaya
Schedule of services:

Weekdays	09.00, 18.00
Sunday	7.00, 10.00, 18.00
Holidays	7.00, 10.00, 18.00

Story

The cathedral building was built in 1633-1642 as a temple of the Catholic Bernardine monastery. Stone monastery complex was built in 1652 According to the inventory of 1784, almost in this place, but somewhat towards the former Kosmodemyanovskaya (Kozmodemyanovskaya) street there was an Orthodox Kosmodemyanovsky monastery, which at the beginning of the 18th century was forcibly converted into a Uniate monastery.

In 1741, the Bernardine monastery suffered from a fire, after which it underwent reconstruction. In 1852 the monastery was abolished and transferred to Nesvizh. Since 1860, the former church became an Orthodox church. The building has been rebuilt several times. A U-shaped two-story building adjoins the temple from the northeast. In 1870, after renovation, the temple was illuminated in the name of the Holy Spirit, and in the same year an Orthodox male monastery was opened with it, which existed until 1922.

After the suppression of the national liberation uprising in 1863, the monastery housed large group rebels, among whom was the daughter of V. Dunin-Martsinkevich Kamila.

The cathedral was closed in the first years of Soviet power. Believers were able to resume worship there only under the conditions of the German occupation of Belarus. The cathedral, prepared for the service, was consecrated by Bishop Philotheus (Narco). Almost immediately after the liberation of Minsk Soviet authorities the main one was closed Orthodox church cities − Peter and Paul Cathedral, which also began to operate again during the years of occupation, and thus the Holy Spirit Cathedral became Cathedral Church of the Minsk Diocese.

In the 1990s

November 25, 1990 the first in many decades took place in Minsk religious procession- a particle of relics was transferred from the Holy Spirit Cathedral to the newly consecrated Church of Mary Magdalene in a special reliquary Mary Equal to the Apostles Magdalene.

The role of the cathedral today

Now the Holy Spirit Church - Cathedral Minsk. The iconostasis contains a number of wonderful icons of the Moscow academic school.

Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God

The most valuable relic- the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, found by Minsk residents in 1500 and called Minsk.

The history of this wondrous image dates back to Gospel times. According to legend, he wrote it among many others Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. For many centuries it was in Byzantium. More than a thousand years ago, on the eve of the Baptism of Rus', a list from it was brought to his homeland by the saint prince equal to the apostles Vladimir and installed it in the Tithe Church, built in the 10th century. For five centuries this icon was in Kyiv. In the XY century. During the Tatar invasion of Kyiv, the Tatar threw the icon into the Dnieper, removing its decorations.

But the icon of the Mother of God survived and after some time appeared in Minsk on the Svisloch River opposite the castle, where, due to its “extraordinary radiance, it was noticed by the inhabitants of the city 13 August 1500 was taken and placed in the castle Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God and remained there for 116 years" (in the Lower Castle of Minsk, in the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Holy Mother of God). Since 1616, the icon was in the Uniate Church of the Holy Spirit, part of the complex of the Basilian monastery (from the end of the 18th century - the Peter and Paul Orthodox Cathedral). From the 1920s, the icon was kept in the museum until it was transferred to the current Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. (During the war, the icon was in the Peter and Paul Cathedral).

In honor of the appearance of the icon of the Mother of God in our city, a solemn service and Divine Liturgy are held annually, led by Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.

Relics of Righteous Sophia, Princess of Slutsk

Old style day of veneration- March 19
Day of veneration according to the new style- April 1
Date of acquisition- April 1, 1612

Princess Sofia was the only daughter of Slutsk Prince Yuri Yuryevich III from his marriage with the daughter of the Lithuanian nobleman Ekaterina Tenchinskaya. Blessed Sophia was born May 14, 1585 her mother died that same year, and on May 19 of the following year her father also died. After the death of her father, custody of the young Sofia, who was left an orphan almost from the cradle, passed into the hands of her relatives: first to the Zhmud elder Yuri Khodkevich, and then, after the death of the latter, to the Vilna castellan, the Brest elder, Ieronymus Khodkevich.

However, having owed the Radziwill princes significant sums of money, the Chodkiewicz decided to improve their situation through guardianship. For these reasons, the Chodkiewicz family and the Radziwill princes entered into a written agreement regarding the extradition of Princess Sofia Olelko, upon reaching adulthood, to the son of the Vilna voivode Janusz Radziwill, Prince of Nesvizh. Princess Sofia Yuryevna was 11 years old at that time, and from that time she was already considered the bride of Janusz Radziwill.

Over time, a disagreement arose between the Chodkiewicz and the Radziwills, which almost ended in bloodshed, and only the mediators sent by the king managed to prevent the impending massacre and persuade both sides to peace. According to the new deal, all monetary claims of the Radziwills to the Chodkiewicz were destroyed, in addition, the latter received a significant sum of money and 500 hauls of land in the form of a tax payment. It should be especially noted that Righteous Sophia made it an indispensable condition that the children from this marriage, of both sexes, be Orthodox.

Wedding of Sofia Yurievna with Prince Janusz Radziwill took place October 14, 1600 By Orthodox rite in the Brest Cathedral. The life of Princess Sofia was not good when she was under the guardianship of the Khodkevichs, but her life was no better after marriage, since her husband paid very little attention to her and often offended her, showing greed for her personal estates.

The only joy and consolation for Princess Sofia was Orthodox faith. All the sadness from the very early childhood she blamed God. In addition to all everyday troubles, another terrible grief for Princess Sophia was added - the church union with Rome, declared in our region in 1596. During the period of the announcement of the union, the city of Slutsk belonged to Sofia, and it was she who appeared primarily for him Orthodox shrines protector and protector from the union. She persistently begged her husband, although a Catholic and later a Calvinist, to petition the Polish king for a charter prohibiting the Orthodox from being forced into union. Thanks to the fruitful activity of the Slutsk Princess Sophia, the city of Slutsk, even during the life of this great saint of God, received special meaning in religious terms for the entire region, as having preserved Orthodoxy in all its purity and inviolability.

Holy Righteous Sophia reposed April 1, 1612 from the first birth of a stillborn daughter, being 26 years 10 months and 18 days old.

Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is the main temple of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is one of the main spiritual shrines of Minsk, which is visited annually by thousands of believers.

Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Minsk (photo: Sergey Sandakov, 2009)

The building was built in the first floor. XVII century like the temple of the Catholic Bernardine convent. In 1852, the monastery was abolished, transferred to the Orthodox Church and consecrated in memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The Holy Spirit Monastery was opened in the adjacent two-story building, which existed until 1922.
Since 1961, the Church of the Holy Spirit began to be called a cathedral.

Cathedral on Nemiga, Minsk (photo: Sergey Sandakov, 2009)

The most valuable relic of the Holy Spirit Cathedral is the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, found by Minsk residents in 1500 and called Minsk.

Icon of the Mother of God (photo: from wikipedia.org)

The relics of Anastasia Slutsa’s granddaughter, Sofia Slutskaya, and particles of the relics of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara are also kept here.

At various times, the cathedral building housed: a gym for the fire brigade, an archive, and a transit prison.
In 1991, Patriarch Alexy II celebrated the All-Night Vigil in the cathedral and awarded him the right to serve the Divine Liturgy with the Royal Doors open.
According to legend, the Minsk Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke. Until the 15th century it was kept in Kyiv until, during the Tatar invasion of this city, it was thrown into the Dnieper River. Some time later, she was found by residents of the city of Minsk on the Svisloch River opposite the castle.

Opening hours and service schedules

Weekdays: 9.00 ( Divine Liturgy), 18.00 (Evening Worship)
Holidays: 7.00 (Early Divine Liturgy), 10.00 (Late Divine Liturgy), 18.00 (On the eve of the All-Night Vigil)

How to get there

The Holy Spirit Cathedral is located at st. Cyril and Methodius, 3
You can get there by metro, exit at Nemiga station

The Holy Spirit Cathedral is rightfully considered one of the most expressive architectural dominants of today's Minsk in the central part of the city. Harmony it appearance, preserved in the proportionality of the proportions of the cathedral, the soft outline of its bell towers directed upwards, obviously contrasts with the rough, angular shapes of the buildings that are located near the temple.

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit attracts attention because it reminds us of the heavenly world; it is perceived as if there was music that was miraculously embodied in the construction. At a time when much of the surrounding architecture sounds dissonant with this sublime feeling, suppressing our joyful mood, oppressing us with the menacingness of its volumes.

This is the first impression that arises in the soul when meeting the Minsk Cathedral, which rises steeply above Freedom Square.

Born for life by talented craftsmen, whose names are unknown to us, the temple is decorated with historical center Minsk, architecturally representing a two-tower, three-nave basilica, made in the Vilna (Belarusian) Baroque style.

The place where the Minsk Holy Spirit Cathedral is located has belonged to the Orthodox Church since ancient times. Before the forced introduction of church union in Minsk after 1596, an Orthodox church was located here monastery in the name of the unmercenary Cosmas and Damian. This monastery also owned lands adjacent to the modern cathedral. About this historical fact information was preserved in the inventory of 1784. In the 16th century it was the eastern outskirts of ancient Minsk. Monastery buildings were one of the structures that had defensive significance.

The first information about this Orthodox monastery dates back to the beginning of the 15th century. He is also mentioned in historical documents beginning of the 17th century. The Belarusian ethnographer and writer Pavel Shpilevsky, who studied the ancient acts and charters of the Minsk province in the 19th century, points to the existence of an Orthodox monastery church at the beginning of the 17th century - “Kozmodemyanovskaya ...; there was a school with her.” There is also mention in documents of Kozmodemyanovskaya Mountain, on which the Holy Spirit Cathedral now stands.

It should be noted that until the end of the 16th century, the vast majority of churches in Minsk were Orthodox churches. Information has been preserved about the existence in the city from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 17th century of sixteen monastery and parish churches: the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the St. Nicholas Monastery, the Spaso-Voznesenskaya (monastery), the Holy Spirit (monastery), Kosmo-Damianovskaya (monastery), Resurrection , St. George's, Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya (convent), Petro-Paul (monastery), in the name of Praskeva Pyatnitsa, Boriso-Glebskaya, Holy Trinity, Mikhailovskaya, in the name of St. Euphrosyne and in the name of the Baptist and Baptist John.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the property and the Cosmo-Damianovsky monastery itself were illegally confiscated by the Polish authorities from the Orthodox and transferred to the Uniates. The church union was greeted by Orthodox Minsk residents of all classes with displeasure and murmur. The following mass protests of Minsk residents against the church union are documented: March 1, 1597 - a speech by townspeople against the Uniate Metropolitan Michael (Rogoza); in 1612 and 1616, there were also mass protests of townspeople against the Brest Church Union.

Due to the illegal confiscation by the Polish king of all churches and monasteries from the Orthodox population of Minsk, in 1613 the Minsk townspeople established the Peter and Paul Brotherhood ( modern Peter and Paul Cathedral on Nemiga). This brotherhood was the largest of the seven Minsk brotherhoods (the cathedral hospital at the castle church of the Nativity of the Virgin, Resurrection, Crusader, St. Michael, St. Nicholas, St. John the Baptist and St. Anne), which waged a constant struggle against the union. Schools, almshouses and printing houses were established under the brotherhoods. In 1620, the Peter-Paul Brotherhood was approved by Patriarch Theophan IV of Jerusalem. By this time (end of the 16th century) about 5 thousand people lived in the city of Minsk. Due to the fact that Minsk residents refused to accept the Brest Church Union and, therefore, refused to visit the churches and monasteries transferred to the Uniates, the Roman Catholic church authorities faced the acute issue of the material maintenance of all real estate confiscated from the Orthodox. Due to the difficulty of resolving it, many former Orthodox churches and monasteries, including the Cosmo-Damianovsky Monastery, were transferred by the Uniates to monastic orders of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. This happened in 1633. Thus, the churches and other real estate of the former Orthodox Kosmo-Damianovsky monastery went to the female Roman Catholic order of Bernardines. After some time in former monastery There was a fire that destroyed temple and other buildings. Fires during this period were not a rare occurrence in Minsk, causing the local population to suffer. Until the end of the 16th century, the entire building of Minsk was wooden, and only starting from the 17th century, stone buildings began to be erected in many places.

After the fire, in the period from 1633 to 1642, the Bernardine Church (the building of the current cathedral) was erected on the lands of the former Kosmo-Damianovsky Orthodox monastery. The stone monastery complex was built later in 1652.

During the Russian-Polish War (1654-1667), the temple was significantly damaged. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in August 1687 it was consecrated again by Bishop Nikolai Slupsky of Vilna.

Interesting memories about the life of the Bernardine nuns were left by the steward of the Russian Tsar Peter I, P.A. Tolstoy, who in 1697 passed through Minsk: “I was in the monastery of Panen Barnadynok,” he noted, “Barnadynka girls walk in black... they wear thick hair shirts and are belted with ropes with knots, they always step barefoot in winter and summer, and pads, they go to the church using a secret staircase built in the wall, and stand in the choir, looking into the church with small holes through gratings so that people do not see them. Those barnadynkas played the organs in front of me and sang very wonderfully...”

Information has been preserved about what the Bernardine temple looked like in early XIX century. On both sides there were small stone chapels. 3 small bells sounded on the towers; on the central pediment (where today we see the mosaic of the icon of the Mother of God) there was big bell, the entire church was whitewashed, its roof was covered with shingles, and its bell towers were covered with tin. Near the monastery there were a number of buildings for economic purposes.

In 1741, the temple was badly damaged by a fire, after which it underwent reconstruction. Frequent fires were a serious disaster for Minsk. They caused great damage to the city in 1809, 1813, 1822, but the most severe fire broke out on May 30, 1835 during a contract fair. Then the Bernardine convent, the building of a modern cathedral with adjacent buildings, was the first to catch fire. Due to the inaction of the fire brigade, the fire quickly engulfed the entire central part of the city. The fire raged for about 8 hours. The damage caused to the city was truly terrible: many residential buildings were damaged, most of the religious buildings, including the convent Bernardine, gymnasium, city theater.

The Bernardine nuns, who suffered from a fire, were unable to restore the temple to its original form, and in 1852, due to a reduction in the number of nuns in it, the temple was closed altogether. The remaining few nuns were transported to the Bernardine monastery in the city of Nesvizh. The Bernardines took all their property, except for the bell left on the pediment of the temple, with them. The temple remained abandoned for some time.

Despite the fact that the property of the Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery was illegally confiscated by the Polish authorities from the Orthodox and transferred to the Uniates, and then to the Bernardine nuns, who erected their own temple in its place, the people's memory of the Orthodox monastery was preserved for more than three centuries until XX century. This fact is evidenced by the fact that until 1931 the street that went down from Cathedral Square ( modern Freedom Square) was called Kozmodemyanovskaya. This street was short and crooked and was considered one of the oldest in Minsk. In ancient times it ran along the shortest route in the southeast of the city fortress and connected the lower part of Minsk - Zamchishche - with its upper part (it went out to the current Holy Spirit Cathedral). Kozmodemyanovskaya Street is marked on the map of Minsk, dated 1793. The plan shows that its borders were the Bernardine Monastery (the modern cathedral) and Nemizskaya Street (then name Nemigi).

In the 18th century, Kozmodemyanovskaya Street was the only one in the city entirely built up with stone houses. appeared a unique monument urban planning of the Renaissance. The narrow, crooked, dark, cobblestone street climbed steeply uphill. It was built up with two- and three-story houses, the first floors of which housed numerous workshops, shops and small shops. In everyday life the street was called “Dark Krams” or “Pamizh Dark Krams”. The proximity to the Low Market also affected Kozmodemyanovskaya’s life. On weekends and holidays the street was filled with numerous traders of a wide variety of goods. There were also industrial enterprises here.

In 1933, Kozmodemyanovskaya Street was renamed in honor of Soviet poet and writer Demyan Bedny ( real name Efim Alekseevich Pridvorov).

Before the war, Kozmodemyanovskaya Street (since 1933 D. Bedny) still retained its appearance. However, during the Great Patriotic War Nazi bombings turned the street into ruins. Complete traces of the street disappeared in 1989 due to the construction of the Nemiga metro station. Not a trace remains of the former Kozmodemyanovskaya Street...

Until 1860, the building of the former Bernardine convent (the modern Cathedral of the Holy Spirit) was empty. This year the temple was returned to the Orthodox Church, minor repairs were made to it, and it was consecrated in memory Equal to the Apostles Methodius and Kirill. Over the next few years, services were held in the church for students of the Theological Seminary, transferred from Slutsk to Minsk. The seminarians lived in neighboring monastery buildings. Thus, after more than 250 years, historical justice has triumphed, and the lands of the Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery, which was once illegally taken from the Orthodox Minsk residents, were returned to its former and legal owner - the Orthodox Church.

At the end of the 60s of the 19th century, the temple looked very bad, which is why it required major repairs. You can imagine the state of the church at that time by reading the report sent to the diocesan authorities from Peter Elinovsky, archpriest of the Minsk Peter and Paul Cathedral. “Upon a careful examination of the Cyril and Methodius Church,” wrote Archpriest P. Elinovsky, “I found that the building was in the most pitiful condition... It was on fire on May 30, 1835 and November 30, 1852. After the fire, the roof was built the first time with wood, and the second with iron, but the exterior of the church has not been repaired since 1825, and the bell towers were not covered either after the first or after the second fire.”

A special role in the history of the temple was played by Archbishop of Minsk and Bobruisk (Turov) Alexander (Dobrynin) (1868-1877). It was comprehensive educated person, brought up under the direct guidance of the ever-memorable Metropolitan of Lithuania and Vilna Joseph (Semashko). Since 1879, he became a worthy successor to the outstanding and zealous metropolitan pastors Joseph (Semashko) and Macarius (Bulgakov) at the Lithuanian See. To strengthen Orthodoxy in Belarus and Lithuania, he built and personally consecrated churches, opened new ones and renewed old brotherhoods. Thanks to his efforts and concerns, many churches and parishes in the region were provided with land and buildings. This activity, in connection with the remarkable personal qualities of Archbishop Alexander - meekness, cordiality, simplicity and friendliness in communication, as well as accessibility for everyone and religiosity, accompanied by deeds of love and mercy, left a deep memory for him among the population of the Minsk and Vilna provinces.

In 1869, at the request of Archbishop Alexander (Dobrynin), the necessary funds were allocated from the treasury to bring the temple and the adjacent building into proper order in order to open a male Orthodox monastery here. An amount of 13 thousand rubles was allocated (a very significant amount at that time), half of which was used to repair the temple and install a new iconostasis in it.

Archpriest P. Elinovsky was recognized as responsible for the repair of the church. Taking on this complex matter, he produced major renovation. Under his leadership, not only the temple itself was restored, but also the monastery building.

The opening of the monastery took place on January 4, 1870, and in May there was an order from the Synod to call it the Holy Spiritual Monastery. The consecration of the main altar of the monastery church in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit took place on October 22, 1870, and on November 1 of the same year the right aisle of the church was consecrated in honor of Saints Methodius and Cyril.

The brethren were made up of monks of the ancient Slutsk Holy Trinity Monastery. Its library, sacristy and much other monastic property were transferred to Minsk. The monks who arrived from Slutsk were greeted festively. Bishop Alexander (Dobrynin) of Minsk blessed the monks with an icon of the Vilna martyrs - Anthony, John and Eustathius. An icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary was also sent from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra as a blessing, a copy of the miraculous icon that had been preserved in the famous Kiev monastery since ancient times.

The monks who came from the Slutsk Holy Trinity Monastery, as a dear memory to them, “placed on the throne” of the Holy Spiritual Church the ancient Gospel, personally rewritten in 1582 by the Orthodox Prince Yuri II Yuryevich Olelko. On the silver cover of that Gospel there was an inscription: “in the name of the Most Holy and Life-Giving Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: this holy gospel by the authoritative hand Yuri Yuryevich Olelko, Prince of Slutsk, was inscribed from R.H. June 1582 4 days and gave eternal hours, until the Holy Trinity, to the pious Archimandria of Slutsk, for eternal prayer and salvation of his soul in the unforgettable memory, like the ancestors of our Princes of Slutsk and parents and himself. Summer 1584.”

In addition to the Slutsk Gospel, other shrines were kept in the Holy Spirit Church, among which was the icon of St. Nikita, Bishop of Novgorod, with a particle of his relics; a lifetime portrait of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, four silver-plated crosses that served as reliquaries for relics. The inscription on one of the crosses testified that the crosses contained particles of the holy relics of many saints of God.

The Holy Spirit Church operated until the beginning of 1918 and was a monastery. In 1905, the number of inhabitants of the monastery did not exceed ten. Among them there was one archimandrite, one abbot, four hieromonks, two hierodeacons and two monks. There was a vocational school at the monastery, where orphans learned the craft of carpentry.

In 1914-1916, services in the church were often conducted by His Grace Theophylact (Klementyev), Bishop of Slutsk, vicar of the Minsk diocese, who in 1917 went to Local cathedral to Moscow. After Theophylact, Archimandrite Athanasius (Vecherka), to whom the authorship belongs, served for a short time as the rector of the temple. interesting book about Righteous Sophia, Princess of Slutsk and Kopyl, whose incorruptible relics are still preserved in the cathedral. This book was published in Minsk in 1912 and is a bibliographic rarity.

In 1918, after the Bolsheviks came to power, the monastery was closed, and soon services in the Holy Spirit Church ceased. After this, much of the church utensils disappeared without a trace. In the temple itself, the new authorities ordered the construction of a gym for the fire brigade, and then an archive. According to some evidence, the crypt part of the temple in the late 1920s - early 1930s was adapted into a transit prison in which “dispossessed” peasants were kept. As Minsk guards testify, the new owners of the temple removed the crosses from the cathedral towers and hoisted red flags in their place. However, gusts of wind tore them off and threw them down.

The story has been preserved that in Soviet times Only a miracle saved the building of the Holy Spirit Cathedral from destruction. In 1938, the city's population was herded to its walls for a rally. To create an appropriate setting, a fire was built near the entrance, where religious literature was burned. To congratulate the workers, a speaker rose to the podium and vowed not to leave his place if the temple was not destroyed. But, while descending from the stands, he tripped and broke both legs. And when the next day the wind tore the red flags that were hung instead of crosses from the towers, the Bolsheviks considered it best not to touch the building.

After the confiscation of the Holy Spirit Church from Orthodox believers, its iconostasis was dismantled and moved for safekeeping to the women's Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, which was located on the site where the buildings of the General Prosecutor's Office and the Pobeda cinema are currently located. From here, in 1921, this iconostasis ended up in the parish church of the village of Prilepy, which is located near Minsk. There it was reassembled and Palm Sunday consecrated. Along with the iconostasis, some more icons that were previously in the Holy Spirit Church were transported to Prilepy. Among them, the following stood out: the altar icon of the Most Holy Trinity, the icons of Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, the unribbed Cosmas and Damian, the great martyr and healer Panteleimon, the great martyr Barbara, the apostle archdeacon and the first martyr Stephen. All of them were destroyed in the 30s during the closure of the temple in Prilepy...

During the Great Patriotic War, services in the Holy Spirit Church were resumed. The consecration of the church was performed by His Grace Philotheus (Narko), Bishop of Mogilev and Mstislav. According to the design of engineer Anton Yakovlevich Vasiliev, at the beginning of 1943, a new three-tier iconostasis was installed in the church (dismantled in 1961). One city resident became a donor to the cathedral, who provided funds for the repair of the cathedral, which he received from the sale of two of his own houses.

At the same time as the temple, the Holy Spirit Monastery was revived, in which three monks lived. Rector of the church in wartime Hegumen Panteleimon (surname unknown) served. Hieromonk Julian (Trotsky) helped him. Later they were joined by Archimandrite Seraphim (Shahmud) (1901-1946), and in 1943 he was appointed rector of the Holy Spirit Church. Archimandrite Seraphim was widely known because he took part in the opening of many churches during the war. In Minsk, Father Seraphim took voluntary care of the city's hospitals, nursing homes and orphanages. He could often be seen visiting people destitute by the war. He performed his pastoral duty strictly and strictly. In 1944, with the arrival of the Red Army, he was arrested. During interrogations, the arrested clergyman behaved with courage. Without hiding his views from the “investigator,” Archimandrite Seraphim, when asked what he said during sermons when he traveled around Belarus, directly said that he often addressed the people with approximately the following words: “Russia was a believer. Our ancestors, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, fathers believed, and now we will live happily again through faith. It’s not good that the atheists closed our shrines, that your fathers and mothers died without the guidance of the Holy Mysteries and were buried without a priest, and that your children grew up not baptized and were not married...” In 1946, the holy martyr died while imprisoned in a prison of the NKVD of the USSR. In 2000, he was canonized as one of the holy new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church of the 20th century.

The next rector of the Holy Spirit Cathedral, Archpriest Seraphim Stefanovich Batorevich, was also arrested in 1951 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Archpriest S. Batorevich was the rector of the Minsk Holy Spirit Cathedral from 1947 to 1951. At the same time, he served as dean of the parishes of the city of Minsk and diocesan secretary. According to the recollections of parishioners, Archpriest S. Batorevich performed divine services reverently and zealously. He was a wonderful preacher, possessed artistic and singing gifts, treated his flock with love and was dearly loved by his parishioners. He died on April 21, 1960, on Easter, from the effects of radiation sickness received in prison.

After its opening in 1942, the Holy Spirit Church never closed. In 1945, an ancient shrine was brought from the closed Peter and Paul Cathedral into the Holy Spirit Church - a miraculous Minsk Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1947, crosses were erected over the cathedral. In the first half of the 1950s, a major overhaul of the interior of the temple was carried out, for which a significant sum of 500 thousand rubles at that time was spent.

In 1953, on the northern side of the temple, a chapel in honor of the Great Martyr Barbara, which was placed a piece of the holy relics of this saint. In 1968, in the southern aisle of the cathedral, a throne in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. At the northern wall of the temple there is a shrine with relics Righteous Sophia, Princess of Slutsk, and in the crypt part of the cathedral there is a chapel in honor of Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, which acts as a baptismal church.

Since 1961, the Holy Spirit Church was given the status of the cathedral of the Minsk diocese.

The Holy Spirit Cathedral is the main temple of Belarus.
It has had this name since 1870.

For twenty years, if not more, coming to Minsk for a variety of reasons, whether willing it or not, by the will of fate, circumstances or God, I always find myself in the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Even if I don’t plan and even if I don’t have time at all... As soon as I find myself somewhere nearby or don’t find myself there, I still find myself in this cathedral for at least a couple of minutes.
It still remains a mystery to me why this happens. And I haven’t thought about this secret or riddle yet.
There is no time to think about this topic.
But I decided to talk about the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The photos were taken during our last trip to Minsk, in the near future we are planning a trip to Minsk again on business, you’ll see, we’ll take some photos of the snowy one. Although there is also a snowy one somewhere in the posts.

The Holy Spirit Cathedral has been the main temple of Belarus for more than half a century.

It is also one of the brightest attractions of Minsk.
The Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is located in the ancient part of Minsk - in the Upper City. It stands on a high hill and is clearly visible from afar.
The Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is the main temple of the Belarusian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The history of the cathedral begins in 1633-1642. It was then that a building was built that served as a church for the Catholic Bernardine monastery.
In 1741, the building burned down in a fire. The monastery was reconstructed after the fire, and in 1852 it was abolished and transferred to Nesvizh.
Some surviving documents, for example, the inventory of 1784, say that where the cathedral is located, but slightly towards the former Kosmodemyanovskaya (Kozmodemyanovskaya) street, there was an Orthodox Kosmodemyanovsky monastery, which at the beginning of the 17th century was forcibly converted into a Uniate monastery.

However, since 1860 the former church became an Orthodox church.
The building has been rebuilt several times. A U-shaped two-story building adjoins the temple from the northeast.
In 1869, at the request of the Archbishop of Minsk and Bobruisk Alexander (Dobrynin), the necessary funds were allocated from the treasury to bring the temple and the adjacent building into proper order in order to open a male Orthodox monastery here.

The required amount has been allocated. And this is 13 thousand rubles. Half of the amount was used to repair the temple and interior decorations in it.
The opening of the monastery took place on January 4 (old style) 1870.
The monastic brethren were made up of monks of the ancient Slutsk Holy Trinity Monastery.

The library, sacristy and other monastic property were transferred from the Slutsk Monastery to Minsk.
The consecration of the monastery church in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit took place on October 22, 1870.
The monastery existed until the October Revolution.

After the revolution, in 1918, the monastery was closed and looted. Crosses were removed from the temple, and red flags were installed in their place. The temple building became a prison for dispossessed peasants.

In the church in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, services were restored only during the Second World War under the German occupation. The believers prepared the cathedral for the service, and Bishop Philotheus (Narco) consecrated it.
Immediately after the liberation of Minsk, the Soviet authorities closed the main Orthodox church of the city - the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which also began to function again during the years of occupation.
After the closure of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Holy Spirit Cathedral became the cathedral church of the Minsk diocese.

On November 25, 1990, the first religious procession in many decades took place in Minsk - a particle of the relics of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was transferred from the Holy Spirit Cathedral to the newly consecrated Church of Mary Magdalene in a special reliquary.
Now the Holy Spirit Church is the Minsk Cathedral. The iconostasis contains a number of wonderful icons of the Moscow academic school.

The cathedral contains the miraculous Minsk Icon of the Mother of God, found by Minsk residents in 1500. Many pilgrims always come to her.
Here, among the many relics, are the incorruptible relics of St. Sophia of Slutsk, granddaughter of Anastasia of Slutsk. They are in a side niche to the left of the altar.

The cathedral is a three-nave basilica, which is the “base” for Belarusian Catholic and Uniate churches. The western façade is completed by two multi-tiered towers decorated with pilasters, arched niches and bays. The pediment between them resembles a shield with a curved contour.
The building was built in the Sarmatian Baroque style, which spread throughout the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th - early 18th centuries.
When rebuilding the cathedral, elements of the Vilna Baroque, a lighter and more magnificent style, were used.
The Holy Spirit Cathedral consists of the main church and two chapels - the southern one (in the name of Cyril and Methodius) and the northern one (in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara). The walls are decorated with many mosaics and stained glass windows.

The Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is one of the most revered and beautiful temples Minsk.

Address of the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit:
st. Cyril and Methodius 3, Minsk

This is the city center. Nearby metro station Nemiga.

The information is partially taken from the stories of temple servants, books, as well as from open sources Internet.

The miraculous Minsk Icon of the Mother of God, found by Minsk residents in 1500.

Holy Spirit Cathedral in Minsk (Belarus) - description, history, location. Exact address and website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.

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The Holy Spirit Cathedral is one of the most striking historical buildings in Minsk. The main Orthodox church of Belarus is located, as it should be, in the very heart of the country's capital. This beautiful church, built in the Vilna Baroque style, first accommodated Catholics within its walls, and from the 19th century - Orthodox.

In general, throughout the history of its existence, the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit has managed to be a prison, an archive, and even a gym.

Nowadays, the Department is visited daily by thousands of people: both pilgrims and tourists.

Story

The history of the temple dates back to 1633-1642 - the time when the church at the Bernardine monastery was built here. In 1741, it was severely destroyed by fire, which is why large-scale reconstruction was carried out.

In 1852, the novices of the monastery moved to Nesvizh, and in 1860 the Catholic church was reconsecrated into Orthodox Church. 10 years later, a men's monastery of the Holy Spirit was organized under her, in which monks from the Holy Trinity Monastery of Slutsk settled. They lived there until 1918, and in general the monastery existed until 1922.

Soon after the revolution, the cathedral was closed. It did not receive parishioners until the Great Patriotic War, when the German administration allowed religious services to be held here. After liberation from the Nazis, the Soviet authorities decided to convert the Peter and Paul Cathedral - the main Orthodox church in Minsk at that time - into an archive. As a result of such upheavals, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit became a cathedral.

What to see

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is a classical baroque basilica, reminiscent of Catholic churches in Vilnius and northwestern Belarus. The main facade of the temple is crowned with 2 high towers with niches and arches. The church is located large number shrines, in particular, pilgrims come here to worship incorruptible relics Saint Sophia of Slutsk and miraculous icon Our Lady of Minsk (1500)

According to legend, this icon was painted by the Apostle Luke himself. For several centuries it was in Byzantium, and before the Baptism of Rus', Vladimir brought it to Kyiv. The icon was transferred to the Church of the Tithes, where it was kept for 500 years. In the 15th century, during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the invaders threw it into the Dnieper. On August 31, 1500, she washed up on the shore of the Svisloch. Since then, she has never left Minsk, different times being in his different temples.

Today, the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is considered one of the most beautiful churches in the capital of Belarus. A pleasant addition - the square in front of the entrance - allows you to appreciate both the grandeur of this beautiful architectural monument and the picturesque panorama of Svisloch.