Orthodox Community Centre in Warsaw is open

September 2012
The Polish Orthodox Church
Maria Nalewajko

The official opening of the Orthodox Community Centre has begun from its consecration ceremony. It took place on the day of the patron saint of the Orthodox Warsaw and Bielsk Diocese, St. Job Poczajowski. It was attended by many priests from across the diocese. The ceremony was preceded by a Divine Liturgy in the nearby Orthodox Cathedral of Saint. Mary Magdalene.

Metropolitan Sawa thanked all those who contributed to the renovation of the recovered object. This is a great achievement of our Church – he said. He also stated that humanly judging this event was not to be. He recalled that not so long ago, when he led a procession around the temple, screams came from a nearby jail.

Struggling 65 years to regain the lost buildings

Orthodox Church wanted to recover the lost building at Saints Cyril and Methodius street no. 4 since 1944, when the building has been occupied by Safety Office. The building was built between 1927 and 1928 as a dormitory for students of Orthodox theology at the University of Warsaw. It is known that there was a chapel in the dormitory. The building was also a seat of Orthodox Theological Society, whose patron was Metropolitan Dionysius.

The building was also a place of a tragic event. On 1st August 1944, the first day of the Warsaw Uprising, several Orthodox Seminary students and staff dormitory had taken refuge there. In the evening, they were shot by the Germans. A memorial plaque placed at the fence at the street of Saints Cyril and Methodius is dedicated to this tragic event.

In 1944 the building of the former dormitory occupied Safety Office. From now on, the building served as the headquarters of the institution, then the seat of militsiya and police since 1990. Church in recent years has repeatedly asked for the return of the building. In the early 70s authorities even considered to return half of the building to the Orthodox Church, but the project did not live to see the completion.

The Orthodox Church in Poland regained the building at Saints Cyril and Methodius street in Warsaw until the outcome of the Regulatory Commission for the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (PAKP), on behalf of PAKP presided Archbishop Jeremiah. An agreement was signed on 22nd December 2004. It happened due to the fact that Bishop Abel agreed to transfer the property in Wirow for another property, and our church commonly agreed to transfer the property located at the 11 November street 18a to the Capital City of Warsaw and the Treasury in compensation for building no. 4 at Cyril and Methodius street.

Wirow – a silent witness to the past

Wirow is a separate and a great story. According to the tradition Orthodox church was located here as early as the fourteenth century. At the time of the Union, Orthodoxy had been ousting from here. Better times followed the unification of Uniates with the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire. Wirow became known since 1894 and flourished until 1915. In 1893 the archbishop Flawian of Warsaw and Chelm decided that female monastery will have been located in Wirow. Within the Orthodox monastery were built a school, an orphanage, a hospital, a pharmacy, a home for the elderly. Crowds of pilgrims had been going to the monastery for the main feast of the Seven Maccabean Martyrs.

In 1915 the Wirow monastery was evacuated to Russian Orthodox and nun never returned there. In 1918 the state provided the area Roman Catholic Church, which created a parish of St. Anthony of Padua.

Now the buildings are deteriorating and graves of the nuns are being devastated. The only sign of monastery’s charitable activity is a centre for curing alcohol addicts.

A monastery itself stands as a silent witness to the past – Marko Poleszuk writes in one of his reports.

Reconstruction and repair work

Police undertook to gradually transfer the premises to the Orthodox. In the part of the building passed in 2008, dwelt twenty-six students and four families of clergy working for the Metropolitan Cathedral. Eventually in February 2010, the latchkey was handed over to Orthodox Church authorities. Ruined building required a major overhaul, which amounted to more than five million zlotys and took two years. It was a huge financial effort for the Church, especially for the faithful and the clergy of the diocese. In the part of the building adapted to the needs of Orthodox center such spaces were built: the museum hall, a library, meeting rooms, guest rooms, rooms for students and the Chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius – reconstructed on the ground floor, where it was in the interwar period. In the basement, the site of former prison is now the dining room with kitchen facilities.

During the ceremony, Metropolitan Sawa thanked people for their contribution to the reconstruction of the recovered object. This is a great achievement of our Church – he said. Great works are made possible by the good manager. Metropolitan Sawa’s long-term efforts in the recovery and restoration of the building in Warsaw Praga has been noticed and appreciated by the faithful of the Orthodox Church in Poland, which is shown by their response to hierarch’s calls for support for investment.

The entire property at the Cyril and Methodius Street is a four-storey building with basement. Total area is 3,688 sq m and its volume is 14,290 cub m and garage boxes built in 1972.

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