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Red Church founder Edward Wojnilowicz to be beautified

The Roman Catholic Church in Belarus plans to beautify politician and public figure Edward Wojnilowicz (Edvard Vaynilovich).

An international commission formed to beautify Wojnilowicz held its first meeting in Minsk on Thursday.

Beautification is described as a recognition of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name.

Speaking at the meeting, Uladzislaw Zavalnyuk, pastor of the St. Simon and Helena Church in Minsk, described Wojnilowicz as a devout Catholic. "The Catholic Church is taking up the task of studying the entire history of his life," he said.

The commission's members have already traveled to localities connected with the life of Wojnilowicz.

Born in 1847 in a village which is now a residential district in Minsk, Edward Wojnilowicz studied and worked in St.Petersburg before returning to what is now Belarus.

The founder of the Minsk Agricultural Society, he represented what is now Belarus in Russia's Imperial Council.

Wojnilowicz financed and oversaw the construction of the St. Simon and Helena Church, also known as Red Church, which began in 1905. //BelaPAN