Description of the attraction
The monastery in the name of the Holy Monk Martyr Athanasius of Brest was founded on February 3, 1996 by the decision of the Synod of the Belarusian Exarchate at the site of the death of St. Athanasius in 1648. Previously, this place was only the chapel of Athanasius of Brest.
Athanasius of Brest is one of the most revered Orthodox saints in Belarus. He lived during the Brest Union and was a champion of the purity of the Orthodox faith. On March 10, 1643, the Monk Athanasius went to the Diet and, denouncing the union, demanded the revival of Orthodox monasteries. He cursed the union and threatened the king with God's punishment. For his speeches, Athanasius was captured in July 1648 and executed.
The place of execution was pointed out to the Orthodox monks by a certain boy who saw everything that was happening from afar. Under cover of night, the imperishable relics of the saint were taken out of the pit and honorably buried on May 8, 1649 in the monastery of the Monk Simeon the Stylite in Brest.
On November 8, 1815, a fire broke out in the Simeonov Monastery, during which the copper shrine with the relics of the saint melted. Only a few particles of relics remain. In 1893, the relics were transferred to the chapel of Athanasius of Brest in the Borisoglebsk monastery in Grodno. In Soviet times, the holy relics were kept in an anti-religious museum set up by the communists in the Donskoy Monastery.
The relics of St. Athanasius of Brest became famous for many miraculous healings.
Today, at the Afanasyevsky Monastery, the brotherhood "Ascetic" and a sisterhood have been formed to help cancer patients, poor families and disadvantaged orphans.
