Members of the Commission for the canonization of saints of the Belarusian Orthodox Church visited the National Historical Archive of Belarus
On April 4, 2023, as part of the events of the Year of Peace and Creation declared in the Republic of Belarus, members of the Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Belarusian Orthodox Church visited the National Historical Archive of Belarus: the head of the department for the canonization of saints of the Gomel diocese, Archpriest Alexander Lopushansky, and the head of the department for the canonization of saints of the Turov diocese, Priest Rostislav Bondarenko.
As part of the visit, the archivists handed over to the guests a certified copy of the birth record of the death on April 14, 1919 of the Belarusian Orthodox Church Saint John Kormyansky (Archpriest John Goshkevich), which was recently identified by Vladimir Denisov, a leading researcher at the Department for the Use of Documents and Information of the NIA of Belarus. This record makes it possible to significantly clarify the biography of the saint, since it was previously believed that he died in 1917. In addition, a number of original documents related to the life and work of John Kormyansky were prepared, and the guests had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their content. Priests, on behalf of the Gomel diocese and the Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, thanked the workers of the NIA of Belarus for the information.
Archpriest Alexander Lopushansky donated several copies of the scientific edition of the memoirs of the famous Gomel priest of the first half of the 19th century to the scientific reference library of the archive. Pyotr Kuzmich Ryllo (1884–1937), which will undoubtedly be of great interest to archivists. Most of all, the archivists were pleased with Priest Rostislav Bondarenko, who donated, from the NIA of Belarus accepted for permanent storage the original book of confessional records of the Lanskaya (v. Lan) church of the Slutsk district of the Minsk province for 1907. It should be noted that earlier in the archive there were no metric books of this church later than 1867.
At the end of the event, Vladimir Denisov gave the guests a tour of the archives, where he introduced them to a number of unique documents that are stored in the archive.
