Consecration of the church in the Siberian Bialystok - Muzeum Pamięci Sybiru

15 June 2021

Consecration of the church in the Siberian Bialystok

The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in the Siberian Bialystok has been officially consecrated.

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Rebuilt after almost four years of great efforts, with the efforts of thousands of people from around the world, the Church of St. Anthony was consecrated on June 12 (on the eve of the patron) by the bishop of Novosibirsk, Joseph Werth. For the inhabitants of the Siberian Bialystok, it is one of the most important days in the over 100-year history of their tiny village. Among the many participants of this solemn ceremony were, among others: the priest of the Catholic Parish in Tomsk, Father Wojciech Ziółek and Father Krzysztof Korolczuk, who looks after the Bialystok parish community on a daily basis. It is also thanks to the work of Father Krzysztof and his organizational skills that the church was rebuilt.

The new temple, though tiny, is very bright inside. On the walls were hung, among others the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa and a copy of the Vilnius image of Merciful Jesus. The bell “St. Kazimierz”, made in Poland, but donated by Bp. Werth and the parish priest of the cathedral in Novosibirsk, Denis Marchyshyn. We wish the inhabitants of the Siberian Bialystok that the Church of St. Anthony was for them a place that would always unite them!

Below we present a letter sent on this occasion to the Most Reverend Father Wojciech Ziółek — the pastor of the Parish of the Protection of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary in Tomsk and members of the Parish of St. Antoni Padewski and all the inhabitants of Siberian Bialystok by Wojciech Śleszyński — the director of the Sybir Memorial Museum:

“On June 12, 2021, you are celebrating a great holiday: the consecration of your wonderful temple, which you rebuilt after a fire in just a few years. The drama that you experienced in 2017 not only shocked you, but also touched the hearts of people in Poland and in many countries around the world. Together, we managed to organize a fundraiser and quickly rebuild the temple. So the destruction of your church did not destroy your community, on the contrary — it gathered thousands of people from all over the world who found out about the existence of your tiny village, lost in the abyss of Sybir, and decided to help you. It is a real miracle!

As employees of the Sybir Memorial Museum, which will soon, on September 17 the following year be opened in the Polish city of Bialystok, we are proud that we could be included in this wide group of supporters. Although today we cannot be at your hospitable threshold, because the pandemic prevented us from doing so, we are with you in thoughts and we will certainly come to you more than once.

We wish your parish community to develop happily and that the contacts you have established all over the world bear further fruit.

God bless You!

We encourage you to familiarize with the book about the Siberian Białystok, published by the Sybir Memorial Museum:

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