Greek-Catholic priest Ihar Kandratsyew dies. During protests in Brest, he demanded authorities release prisoners
Ihar Kandratsyew was 67 years old. His death was reported by the Greek-Catholic community on Facebook.
According to the report, Ihar Kandratsyew died in the Holy Land after a severe oncological illness. He led the Greek-Catholic community in Brest and the Brest region for many years.
Ihar Kandratsyew was born in 1959 in Siberia into a family of repressed individuals.
On his father's side, he had ancestors who were exiled from the territory of Belarus in the 19th century after one of the uprisings. Among his ancestors were priests and icon painters.
He received an architectural education, engaged in the restoration of churches and icon painting.
He had a wife, Volha, who assisted him in his ministry as a musician and choirmaster, and two sons.
In 1988, he was ordained a priest, and from 1995, he began his ministry in the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. Upon arriving in Belarus, he quickly learned the Belarusian language and, from 1996, headed the editorial board of the religious newspaper "Tsarkva" (Church).
The priest was at the forefront of establishing Greek Catholic parishes in Brest, Ivacevichy, Baranavichy, Pinsk, Slonim, and Astraviec, and was actively involved in building pastoral centers, ecumenical dialogue, and popularizing Belarusian translations of the Bible.
In 2022, Ihar Kandratsyew was detained along with the editor of the newspaper "Tsarkva", Ihar Baranouski. The priest was sentenced to 12 days of administrative arrest for disseminating "extremist materials".
In August 2020, in Brest, during mass protests, Kandratsyew was one of the participants in a meeting between the city's public and the then-chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee, Aliaksandr Rahachuk. The priest called for the release of those detained. When the official agreed, Kandratsyew went to the local temporary detention center (ICHU) and spent the entire night there until the last detainee was released.
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