Today, June 12, at 6:00 PM, a Holy Mass with the solemn blessing of the icon of Father Mieczysław Bogatkiewicz will take place in the Verkhnedvinsk Church.

Father Mieczysław served as parish priest in Drysa from December 1, 1941, to January 16, 1942.

On January 16, 1942, he was arrested and taken to the prison in Braslaw, and then to Hlybokaye. In the evening of March 2, Fr. Mieczysław Bogatkiewicz, along with Fr. Władysław Maćkowiak and Stanisław Purtka, were placed in a death row cell. At dawn on March 4, 1942, the priests were taken to the forest near the village of Barok and shot. On June 13, 1999, Pope John Paul II proclaimed 108 martyrs blessed, one of them being Father Mieczysław Bogatkiewicz.

Photo and text by the editorial office of the newspaper "Dzvinskaya Pravda"