English

Ceremony held near Homyel to remember believers executed during Stalin's purges

A commemorative ceremony was held at a Stalin-era massacre site near Homyel on November 2, the Remembrance of Ancestors Day (Dzyady).

Members of local Roman Catholic communities were executed during Stalin's purges at the site, several kilometers of Homyel. A wood cross was put up there in 1994 to commemorate the Stalin terror victims.

Around 100 members of the Nativity of Our Lady community attended the commemorative ceremony to pray for not only those who were killed but also those who killed them.

"Many of those who were killed, fell victim to political purges or spent many years in forced labor camps did not even know for what they were arrested, tortured and killed," Slavamir Lyaskowski, priest of the Nativity of Our Lady church, said at the mass requiem. "They were forced to invent their alleged crimes such as espionage and treason on their own. Thanks to their intercession, we can today talk openly about the fact that we are Christians."

According to some reports, a Roman Catholic priest was shot to death there for allegedly leading a Polish military group. He was rehabilitated in 1989. //BelaPAN