MALDZIS acquired an ancient parish archive from Hrodna region
This is a priceless source of information about the religious and secular life of the Hrodna surroundings in the 19th century.
On March 7, the MALDZIS initiative acquired at an auction in Poland a handwritten archive from the first half of the 19th century, originating from a parish near Hrodna. This is a very valuable source of information about the confessional and secular life of the region at that time.
The subject is a so-called cartulary — a handwritten collection of official documents and correspondence from the church in Vialikiya Eismanty, located in the Berastavitsa district of Hrodna region.
The collection contains preserved decrees of secular and church authorities, information about the life of the parish and local community, surnames of local residents, mentions of vital records, individual family histories, notes on smallpox vaccination, church construction, and much more.
Most of the records belong to the parish priest and Hrodna dean, Michał Sezianiewski (1784—1850). They were kept for 14 years and date back to the first half of the 19th century.
"Almost every day, somewhere in the world, collectible items related to Belarus are sold. But to find a valuable item for sale that was taken from Belarusian territory, related to it by content and origin, especially when its place of origin is precisely known — that's a real rarity," says Pavel Matsukevich, head of the Maldzis initiative.
The handwritten book was acquired with funds from MALDZIS initiative patron Illia Pakrouski.
In the future, the book, as a public gift, will return to its rightful place — to the Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John of Nepomuk in Vialikiya Eismanty.
"In this story, as in other projects of our initiative, it is important that a Belarusian was found who financed the acquisition of the manuscript so that this archive would not end up in private collections, but would return to Belarus as a public gift," said Hryhor Astapenia, trustee of the MALDZIS initiative.
Among MALDZIS's immediate plans is the digitization of the handwritten collection to make it accessible to all interested historians and local lore enthusiasts.
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