Kostomłoty is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Kodeń Gmina Kodeń is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. Its seat is the village of Kodeń, which lies approximately east of Biała Podlaska and north- ...

, within

Biała Podlaska County Biała (the feminine form of Polish ''biały'' 'white') may refer to: Cities and towns in Poland Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) * Biała, Gmina Trzcianka * Biała, Gmina Wieleń * Biała, Kalisz County * Biała, Konin County Łó ...

Lublin Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in the southeastern part of the country, with its capital being the city of Lublin. The region is named after its largest city and regional capital, Lu ...

, in eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, close to the border with

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 ...

. It lies approximately south of

Terespol Terespol (; ) is a border town in eastern Poland on the border with Belarus. It lies on the border river Bug, directly opposite the city of Brest, Belarus. It has 5,794 inhabitants as of 2014. Overview Since 1999 Terespol has been within Bia� ...

on the border with Belarus. First written mention of the settlement comes from 1412 when the village was offered to the

Augustinian Order Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th ...

from nearby Brest by the Lithuanian Grand Duke

Vytautas Vytautas the Great (; 27 October 1430) was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was also the prince of Grodno (1370–1382), prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites. In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revere ...

. During 16th century the Order sold it to the

Sapieha The House of Sapieha (; ; ; ) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Ruthenian origin,Энцыклапедыя ВКЛ. Т.2, арт. "Сапегі" descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk and Polotsk. Vernadsky, George. ...

noble family from nearby

Kodeń Kodeń is a village in eastern Poland on the Bug River, which forms the border between Poland and Belarus. Administratively, it belongs to Biała Podlaska County in Lublin Voivodeship. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called ...

. In 1631 the Eastern Rite parish of St. Nicetas the Martyr was established, which accepted the

Union of Brest The Union of Brest took place in 1595–1596 and represented an agreement by Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Ruthenian portions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to accept the Pope's authority while maintaining Eastern Orthodox liturgical ...

of 1596 at some time during the 17th century, thus restoring communion the successor of St. Peter. Following the

Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign ...

the village first fall under Austrian rule and later became a part of the semiautonomous so-called ''

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

'' which saved the parish from the first waves of repressions against the Ruthenian (Belarusian and Ukrainian) Greek-Catholic Church until the brutal

Conversion of Chełm Eparchy The Conversion of Chełm Eparchy was the forced conversion of the Eparchy of Chełm–Belz that took place between January and May 1875. It was the last eparchy of the Ruthenian Uniate Church that remained on the territory of the Russian Empire f ...

by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1875. Following the establishing of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

in 1918, the parish in Kostomłoty, along with a number of other parishes (over 40 by 1939), returned to Byzantine Catholicism in 1927, however maintaining a distinct Byzantine-Slavonic Rite, different from the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite which has developed in the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a Major archiepiscopal church, major archiepiscopal ''sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Cathol ...

that survived under Austrian rule in the region of Galicia. After the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

victory in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

most of those parishes were forcibly closed, only a few which were located in the ''

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

'', rather than the

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

and

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

directly controlled by Moscow, could survive. Due to the changing demographics those parishes were faced with a lack of Eastern Rite faithful in the 1960s and most have adopted the Latin Rite which has left the church in Kostomłoty the only Byzantine-Slavonic Rite parish in Poland and the entire region. Since 1969 the parish is under the care of the

Marian Order The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary () is a Catholic male clerical religious congregation founded, 1670, in Poland. It is also known as Marians of the Immaculate Conception. Its members ...

. On 12 July 1998 relics of the

Pratulin Martyrs The Martyrs of Pratulin (or ''Wincenty Lewoniuk and 12 Companion Martyrs of Pratulin)'' were a group of 13 Ukrainian Greek Catholic men and boys who were killed by soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army on January 24, 1874, in the village of Prat ...

, who were murdered by the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

when praying outside a church confiscated by the Tsarist regime in nearby Pratulin, were transferred here and the parish was named the Shrine of the Martyrs of Pratulin.

External links

Shrine of the Martyrs of Podlachia

References

{{Gmina Kodeń Villages in Biała Podlaska County