The cemetery was established by the residents of Pratulin in 1918 in the place where on January 27, 1874, the tsarist authorities secretly buried the bodies of 13 Uniates shot three days earlier by the Russian army during an attack on parishioners defending their church from being taken over by the Orthodox priest. The following died then: Wincenty Lewoniuk, Daniel Karmasz, Łukasz Bojko, Konstanty Bojko, Konstanty Łukaszuk, Bartłomiej Osypiuk, Anicet Hryciuk, Filip Geryluk, Ignacy Frańczuk, Onufry Wasyluk, Maksym Hawryluk, Jan Andrzejuk and Michał Wawrzyszuk, in addition about 180 Uniates were wounded. Although the burial took place in the Wierzbinka forest in a mass grave leveled to the ground, this place was remembered by posterity and right after regaining independence it was fenced and commemorated with a common tombstone with a stone monument and the inscription: "Here lie the bodies of martyrs who on January 24, 1874 in Pratulin gave their lives in defense of faith, church and Polishness. Let us pray for their elevation to the altar." On May 18, 1990, during the exhumation, 13 complete skeletons were extracted, placed in a sarcophagus and placed in the parish church.
After the solemn beatification of Wincenty Lewoniuk and his twelve companions as Martyrs of Pratulin – performed in Rome on 6 October 1996 by Pope John Paul II – a chapel with their relics was set up in the parish church in Pratulin. Currently, the sarcophagus with the relics rests in the altar table of the main altar of this church and, together with the historic Uniate cemetery and other objects, it co-creates the Sanctuary of the Blessed Martyrs of Podlasie in Pratulin. In the years 2009-2012, the Pratulin sanctuary was enriched with a historic wooden church translocated from Stanin in Łuków district and placed in the place where the original church – soaked in the blood of Uniates – stood, demolished by order of the Russian authorities in 1886.
Translated by Google •
In the know? Log-in to add a tip for other adventurers!