The History of Appearance of the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Town Glubokoe

In the Vitebsk region, in the town Glubokoe, there is the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God. Originally it was a Catholic church that was called the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and referred to the Order of Carmelites. The temple is situated in the center of the square in relation to other structures of the town.

The appearance of the cathedral refers to the times of Euphrosyna of Polotsk when Christianity actively developed and flourished in these lands. It is officially stated in the records that in 1552 in Glubokoe there had already been an Orthodox cathedral. But upon the beginning of the XVII century, when the town was in possession of Joseph Korsak, he embraced Catholic faith on account of the situation in the country at the time. After that some representatives of the Order of Carmelites were invited to the town, and with their assistance the construction of a brick building of the cathedral was started in 1639. But soon Joseph died and the construction was finished by new owners of the lands that they had inherited. The construction was completed in 1654.

In 1878 the cathedral was given to the Orthodox Church and was consecrated as the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

According to some historical sources, Napoleon lived in the building of the monastery during 10 days. He had positive impressions about the time spent there; he regretted that he couldn’t take the temple with him to France. According to his words, it is no shame in showing people such architectural work.

The Description of the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God

The temple is one of the first structures designed in Vilna Baroque. According to many historians, this temple is rather original and unusual, because against the background of other European buildings of this style there is hardly another such temple with 4 towers.

The interior of the temple is decorated with moldings; besides, all its walls and ceilings are covered with fresco painting. Unfortunately, the frescos haven’t survived to us; they were lost in the course of the reformation of a church into a temple. At the time there was installed an iconostasis. The true gem of the cathedral is an exact copy of the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God that was brought to the temple in 1911 from Korea. The image of the Mother of God is made with oil paints on a cypress board. Inside the icon there are kept parts of relics of some God-pleasers and small pieces of cotton consecrated in three different holy places. The icon was even aspersed with holy water from the Jordan River. Since ancient times this icon has been known as wonderworking that can heal even critically ill people.

Today the parish of the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God can boldly be called the most visited one of the whole Polotsk Diocese. On the basis of the temple there functions a Sunday school and professional choir; there is also an Orthodox library. Not long ago, in 2012, the Sunday school’s pupils laid out a garden near the temple that was called the Garden of Prayer.