Diocese Mogilev - a quiet islet of faith

The church is the spiritual cell of society, without which it is impossible to build a moral and pure culture. A separate unit of the church system is the diocese, which lives by its own laws. The Diocese of Mogilev in Belarus is a small corner of faith and hope for the believer in the God of man. Diocese as a family is the backbone for the state.

Mogilev Diocese

The Mogilev and Mstislav Diocese (the city of Mogilev) is a unit of the Orthodox Church of Belarus. It was officially established in the distant 1632 year. Restored to today's state was in July 1989. The diocese unites several parishes and monasteries of the ROC in the Mogilev region. The center is the city of Mogilev. A cathedral church - Cathedral named after St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. The temples of the Diocese of Mogilev are very beautiful and colorful buildings that every Belarusian citizen should visit. The ruling bishop until today is Sofroniy, who took up his duties in October 2002.

Historical background

As it was said earlier, the Diocese of Mogilev was created in November 1632 as a separate element of the Polotsk Diocese, but in October 1783 it became archbishopric, and in 1937 the activity was terminated due to the occupation of the territory of Belarus. In the beginning of 1940 there was an association with the Minsk diocese. Official and complex restoration was carried out in 1989. In December 2004, the Bobruisk Diocese emerged as an independent ecclesiastical unit.

The Diocese of Mogilev is described in three variants, which are represented by different time periods and various historical documents. The first two versions of the stories are in the archives of the Holy Synod. The data were recorded by Simeon Zverev, who describes the events of 1830. In this case, in fact the document was drawn up in 1832.

In 1852, the collegiate assessor and professor of the Mahiliou Theological Seminary S.I. Sokolov composed a manuscript, which he titled: "History of the Mogilev Orthodox Diocese with a biography of all its hierarchs from the institution to the present days." An interesting point is that the chapters of the manuscript have rather strange names, for example, "Papist's deceits", "The vile deeds of the priest Ovlochinsky", etc. All this pushes the idea that times change, but people remain the same. The value of this manuscript by Professor S. Sokolov is that he cites the real papers of the 16th-17th centuries, which were in the archives of the Mogilev-Bratsky Monastery. The third version of the history of the diocese is officially issued and is called the following: "Mogilev Diocese: Historical and Statistical Description".

Titles

For all of its existence, this diocese bore a lot of names. Probably, among all the church units only this one has changed so many names. It should be noted that even today there is no separate Mogilev diocese, but there is a united Mogilev and Mstislav Diocese. Titles:

• since 1632 - Orsha, Mogilev and Mstislavl;
• since 1772 - Mstislavskaya and Orsha, Mogilev;
• since 1795 - Mogilev and Polotsk;
• since 1797 - the Belarusian-Mogilev;
• since 1803 - Mogilev and Vitebsk;
• since 1833 - Mogilev and Mstislavl.
As we see, this diocese really changed a lot of names, but in the end it all returned to the original version.

Current state

To date, the ruling bishop of the diocese is Sofroniy (Yushchuk), who has been here since 2002. The territory itself covers as many as 15 districts of the region. The Diocese has two cathedral churches - the Cathedral of the Three Saints (Mogilev) and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (in Mstislavl). Deanery deaneries include: Mogilev, Mstislav, Chauskoe, Shklov and Klimovichi.

A bit about the bishop

Sophrony was born on April 11, 1951 in a family of workers. The birthplace is the village of Kotelnya-Boyarska (Brest region). The bishop has a higher theological education, he was also a pupil of the Leningrad Theological Seminary in 1979-1982, and after, until 1986, an excellent student of the Leningrad Theological Academy. In 1994, having passed all the necessary steps through the church staircase, Sofrony became the official head of the Blagoveshchensky Lyadensky Monastery.

In 2008, he was awarded the Order of St. Prince Daniel of Moscow II degree, and in 2011 he received the Order of the Monk Sergei Radonezhsky II degree. When the study was over, he was enrolled in the brotherhood of the Holy Dormition Monastery. Already in April 1986, the clergyman took monastic vows.

Summarizing the results of this article, I want to note that each separate diocese, as a small state, has its ruler and its laws. Find out the secrets of the past and imbued with the spirit of the church can every believing person, reading the available church materials on this topic. The Diocese of Mogilev is in a sense unique, but it is also very modern. Everyone can visit the official website of the diocese, which contains all the necessary and important information about the activities, as well as a schedule of upcoming church events.