The church is that spiritual unit 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 Mogilev diocese in Belarus is a small corner of faith and hope for a person who believes in God. The diocese as a family is a pillar 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 back in 1632. It was restored to its present state in July 1989. The diocese unites several parishes and monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Mogilev region. The center is the city of Mogilev. And the cathedral is the Cathedral named after St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. The temples of the Mogilev diocese are very beautiful and colorful buildings that every resident of Belarus should visit. The ruling bishop to this day is Sofrony, who took office in October 2002.
Historical information
As was said earlier, the diocese of Mogilev was created in November 1632 as a separate element of the Polotsk diocese, but already in October 1783 it became an archbishopric, and in 1937 the activity was terminated due to the period of occupation of the territory of Belarus. At the beginning of 1940 there was an association with the Minsk diocese. The official and comprehensive restoration was carried out in 1989. In December 2004, the Bobruisk diocese stood out as an independent church unit.
The Diocese of Mogilev is described in three versions, which are represented by different time periods and various historical documents. The first two versions of the stories are in the archive of the Holy Synod. The data was recorded by Simeon Zverev, who describes the events of 1830. Moreover, the document was actually drawn up in 1832.
In 1852, a college assessor and professor at the Mogilev Theological Seminary S.I. Sokolov compiled the manuscript, which he entitled: “The History of the Mogilev Orthodox Diocese with a biography of all its bishops from the institution to the present day.” An interesting point is that the chapters of the manuscript have rather strange names, for example, “Tricks of the papists”, “The heinous acts of priest Ovlochinsky”, etc. All this leads to the idea that times are changing, and people remain the same. The value of this manuscript of Professor S. Sokolov is that he cites real papers of the XVI-XVII centuries, which were in the archive of the Mogilev-Bratsky monastery. The third version of the history of the diocese is officially published and is called as follows - “Mogilev diocese: historical and statistical description”.
Names
For the entire time of its existence, this diocese carried a lot of names. Probably, among all church units only this one changed so many names. It is worth noting that even today there is no separate Mogilev diocese, but there is a unified Mogilev and Mstislav diocese. Names:
• since 1632 - Orsha, Mogilev and Mstislavskaya;
• since 1772 - Mstislavskaya and Orshanskaya, Mogilevskaya;
• since 1795 - Mogilev and Polotsk;
• since 1797 - Belorussian-Mogilev;
• since 1803 - Mogilev and Vitebsk;
• since 1833 - Mogilev and Mstislavskaya.
As we see, this diocese really changed a lot of names, but in the end still returned to its original version.
Current state
To date, the ruling bishop of the diocese is Sofrony (Yushchuk), who has been here since 2002. The territory itself covers as many as 15 districts of the region. The diocese has two cathedrals - the Cathedral of Three Saints (Mogilev) and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (in Mstislavl). The deaneries of the diocese include: Mogilev, Mstislavsky, Chausky, Shklovsky and Klimovichsky.
A bit about the bishop
Sofrony was born on April 11, 1951 in a family of workers. Place of birth is the village of Kotelnya-Boyarskaya (Brest region). The bishop has a higher theological education, he was also a student of the Leningrad Theological Seminary from 1979-1982, and after that, until 1986, an excellent student of the Leningrad Theological Academy. In 1994, having passed all the necessary steps along the church staircase, Sofrony became the official head of the Holy Annunciation Monastery of Lyadensky.
In 2008 he was awarded the Order of St. Prince Danil of Moscow II degree, and in 2011 he received the Order of St. Sergei of Radonezh II degree. When his studies were completed, he was enrolled in the brotherhood of the Holy Assumption Monastery. Already in April 1986, the clergyman received monastic tonsure.
Summing up the results of this article, I would like to note that each individual diocese, as a small state, has its own ruler and its own laws. Every believer can learn the secrets of the past and be inspired by the spirit of the church by 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 activity, as well as a schedule of upcoming church events.