The Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, Grodno

BELARUS, 2014, postal stationary (envelope) featuring the cathedral in the lower left corner;
the cathedral also appears on a 1992 Belarus postal card

The Cathedral at Grodno (Hrodna) on the east side of the town's main square is that of St. Francis Xavier, known as Farny Church (Polish for cathedral). It was a Jesuit church until the time of the Suppression (1773), when it was taken over as the cathedral. As early as 1585 King Stefan Batory had donated funds for construction of a Catholic church and a Jesuit collegium in Grodno, but his plan did not come to fruition a century later. The college began in 1626. The cornerstone of the church was blessed in 1678, the foundation laid in 1683, and the consecration of the church took place on 6 December 1705 in the presence of King August II and Tsar Peter the Great. Its late Baroque frescoes were executed in 1752. The organ for the Jesuit church was purchased in Krulevets (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1744. Actual construction was not completely finish until 1772, one year before the Suppression.

The Jesuit College, Pinsk

BELARUS, 1997, the 900th anniversary of Pinsk, Scott 221

This FDI post card cover issued also pictures the Jesuit church belonging to the college.
After entering Pinsk on 20th September 1939, the Red Army used close range heavy artillery fire to destroy it,
using an excuse that there were some snipers shooting from the church spires, and they then arrested the many Jesuits who were studying or teaching there.

BELARUS, 2008, the Jesuit college building is to the upper left on this postal stationery; the "A" denomination is the inland rate.
The Franciscan church and monastery in to the lower right.

The Jesuit college in Pinsk, now the Regional Museum, may be most famous as the burial place of St. Andrew Bobola. After his martyrdom the college was pillaged and burned several times and the tomb forgotten. But forty-five years later the rector of the college, considering a patron for the school, had visions of the martyr who told him he would be the patron of the college and also where to find his tomb. Despite the dampness of the underground tomb, the body turned out to be astonishingly incorrupt.

The Jesuit College, Polotsk

BELARUS, 2006, postal stationery marking the 425th anniversary of the Jesuit College of Polotsk

In 1581 the Jesuits founded a college, a secondary school, in Polotsk, now in Belarus, through a rich foundation of King Stefan Batory. In 1649 it added a faculty of philosophy and in 1737 a faculty of theology. It was used for the training of young Jesuits as well as those outside of the order. And eventually it was known as the Collegium Bobolanum, in honor of St. Andrew Bobola, SJ.

After the Suppression of the Jesuit Order in Europe, Jesuits from all over the world poured into Russia. Polotsk became the capital of the Jesuits' community for a period of 40 years. The town became an intellectual capital of Europe. Catherine the Great favored the academy, which soon became the leading center of technical training in Russia. On January 12th, 1812, the Russian Emperor Alexander I decreed the transformation of thecollegium into Polotsk Jesuit Academy, equal to university status.

However, just 3 years later still during Alexander's reign the Jesuits were expelled from St. Petersburg during the night of 22-23 December 1815. The pretext for this was the conversion of Prince Alexander Galitzin to the Catholic faith. They were relegated to Polotsk. And, by the ukase of 25 March 1820, they were exiled completely from Russian territory.

The Academy passed to other religious until 1830, and then in 1835 became a military school for 83 years. Finally it became the present Polotsk State University which had been known as Novopolotsk Polytechnic till 1993. The College Church of Saint Stephen, completed by the Jesuits in 1745, had been re-consecrated as the Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral. It was later vandalized by the authorities, closed in 1921, and destroyed in 1964.

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