Boļeslavs Sloskāns (, 1893-1981) was a Latvian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and a survivor and

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) ...

of the Soviet

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Early life

He was born 31 August 1893 near Stirniene. In 1911 Boļeslavs Sloskāns entered the

Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy The Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy () was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russian Empire. The academy granted master's and doctorate degrees in theology and was designed to prepare clergy ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He was ordained

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

for the

Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev The Archdiocese of Mohilev (or Mogilev or Mahilyow) was a territorial Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, covering the greater part of the territory of the Tsarist Russian Empire (from St Petersburg to Vladivostock). T ...

by Bishop Jan Cieplak on 21 January 1917 in St. Petersburg. He then served as a parish priest in Russia for several years. He even renounced Latvian citizenship so that he could remain in Russia after Latvian independence. After Bishop Cieplak was appointed archbishop of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

on 14 December 1925, Fr. Sloskāns was appointed bishop on 5 May 1926. He was ordained

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Cillium in secret by Bishop

Michel d'Herbigny Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d'Herbigny (; May 8, 1880 – December 23, 1957) was a French Jesuit scholar and Catholic Church, Catholic bishop. He was president of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome and of the Pontifical Commission for Russia ...

, S.J., on 10 May 1926 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Bishop Aleksander Frison was also ordained during the same secret ceremony. On 13 August 1926 Bishop Sloskāns was appointed

apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

of the Archdiocese of Mohilev as well as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. On the same day he assisted Bishop d'Herbigny in the ordination of Anton Malecki as titular bishop of Dionysiana and apostolic administrator for Leningrad. On 17 September 1927 Bishop Sloskāns was arrested in Minsk by the

Soviet secret police There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The Okhrana was abolished by the Provisional government after the first revolution of 1917, and the first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Leni ...

, or

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

. He was then sentenced to three years in Solovki prison camp, which has often been called "The First Camp of the

GULAG The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

", based on false evidence. He was released in October 1930 after completing his sentence. On 8 November 1930 he was arrested again just one week after arriving back in Mohilev. He served an additional two years in prison until he was repatriated to

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

on 22 January 1933 in exchange for an accused Soviet spy in the custody of the Latvian government.

Life in exile

After leaving the Soviet Union, Bishop Sloskāns traveled to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. The

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

had publicly acknowledged the episcopal ordinations of Bishops Sloskāns and Malecki only in 1929 when both were in Soviet prisons.

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

appointed Bishop Sloskāns an assistant to the Papal Throne on 5 April 1933 in recognition of the harsh treatment he had experienced while imprisoned. Returning to Latvia, Bishop Sloskāns continued to serve as the apostolic administrator of Mohilev and of Minsk ''

in absentia ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...

'' while he took charge of the Roman Catholic seminary in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. In late 1944 he was evacuated to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

to escape the advancing

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. In 1946 he moved to Belgium where he established a Latvian seminary. In 1947 Bishop Sloskāns moved to the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

Abbey of Mont César in Leuven ''DECRETUM SUPER VIRTUTIBUS'', Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Volume 97
Issue 4
(2005), p. 419 at the invitation of the local Belarusian émigré community.(in Belarusian
Святар, які прайшоў праз Салаўкі і Сібір
he priest who went through Siberia and Solovki-

Novy Chas ''Novy Chas'' ( ; ''New Time'' in English) is an independent weekly newspaper published in Belarus. History and profile ''Novy Chas'' was established on 1 March 2007 as a successor to ''Zgoda (newspaper), Zgoda'' which was shut down in 2007. The ...

, 30 September 2017 This would remain his home in exile for the remainder of his life. In 1952

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed him

Apostolic Visitor In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor (or ''Apostolic Visitator''; Italian: Visitatore apostolico) is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration. The visitor is deputed ...

for all

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Belarusian

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Chri ...

Catholic

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

s. His commission was expanded to include expatriate Latvian and

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

Catholics in 1953. Coming from a Latvian-Belarusian border region and being a fluent speaker of Belarusian, Boļeslavs Sloskāns actively supported the Belarusian student community in Belgium as well as other Belarusian diaspora communities in the West. He provided financing for two exiled Belarusian Catholic magazines published in Rome (''Źnič'') and Paris (''Božym Šlacham'', Belarusian Cyrillic: Божым шляхам) and pledged for the appointment for a Belarusian Catholic bishop.(in Belarusian
18 красавіка — гадавіна смерці біскупа Баляслава Слосканса
8 April is the anniversary of the passing of Bishop Balaslau Sloskans- official website of the Catholic Church in Belarus, 18 April 2018 On 8 April 1961

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

appointed him as a consultant to the Papal Commission for the Oriental Churches in preparation for the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. On 18 November 1964 along with Latvian bishop Jāzeps Rancāns he co-consecrated Bishop Julijans Vaivods, the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Riga and of the Diocese of Liepāja. Bishop Sloskāns participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council and died in 1981.

Legacy

Bishop Sloskāns' memoirs of his arrest and experiences in the

was posthumously published by Aid to the Church in Need. After the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, his remains were repatriated in 1993 from Belgium to Latvia, where they were re-interred at the Basilica of the Assumption in

Aglona Aglona (, , , hist. ) is a village in the Aglona Parish of Preiļi Municipality in the Latgale region of Latvia. It is located northeast of the city of Daugavpils. Located on the narrow strip of land between the lakes Cirišs and Egles, ...

. In December 2004, Bishop Sloskāns was declared

Venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

, and an investigation was opened for potential

Beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...

and

Canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

. Bishop Sloskāns is widely commemorated by the Roman and Greek Catholic churches in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

as one of the longest-standing Belarusian Catholic leaders of the 20th century, for his support to exiled Belarusian Catholics and for his promotion of the usage of the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

Belarusian language Belarusian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language. It is one of the two Languages of Belarus, official languages in Belarus, the other being Russian language, Russian. It is also spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Polan ...

in opposition to the historical

Polonization Polonization or Polonisation ()In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі ...

policy favored by the hierarchy of the

Catholic Church in Belarus The Catholic Church in Belarus is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The first Latin Church diocese in Belarus was established in Turaŭ between 1008 and 1013. In the subsequent centuries, ...

.(in Belarusian
Біскуп Баляслаў Слосканс: 17 турмаў, канцлягер, жыцьцё для беларусаў
ishop Balaslau Sloskans: 17 prisons, concentration camp and a life for the Belarusians-

, 19 August 2023 In 2012, several days long commemorative events dedicated to Boļeslavs Sloskāns were held in Mahiliou with the participation of senior Catholic clergy from Belarus and Latvia.(in Belarusian
У Магілёве адкрыліся Дні біскупа Баляслава Слосканса
alaslau Sloskans Days commenced in Mahiliou- Official website of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus, 4 May 2012

Sources

*
About Bishop Boļeslavs Sloskāns
*

References

External links

*
The Venerable Bishop Boļeslavs Sloskāns
*
Historical recording of Boļeslavs Sloskāns
- Address of welcome at the congress "Kirche in Not" (1956) *
Witness for God among the Godless
- Short biography on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of death of Bishop Sloskāns (2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sloskans, Boleslavs 1893 births 1981 deaths Latvian Gulag detainees Gulag in literature and arts Inmates of Solovki prison camp Latvian Roman Catholics People from Vitebsk Governorate Roman Catholic bishops in the Soviet Union Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II Belarusian Roman Catholic bishops