Each year, on 17 and 18 February, Belorussian Catholics, both of the Latin and Byzantine rites, go on pilgrimage to the village of Rositsa, on the border with Latvia and close to the Russian frontier, to commemorate the martyrs of the 2nd World War, when the Nazis, during a reprisal against the civilian population of the area, burnt alive over 1500 people of various confessions in 1943. The victims included two Catholic priests of the order of the Marian Clerics, Antony Leszczewicz and George Kaszyra, who were martyred because they refused to abandon their communities. The Pope beatified them in 1999. Orthodox faithful and Jews from the area also participated in the meeting of prayer and reflection. In spite of the bitter cold, the pilgrims some of them from far away prayed on the site of the martyrdom for the victims, for peace, reconciliation and dialogue. The parish church of Rositsa has become a place of ecumenical prayer also on other occasions during the year. “An icon of these new Belorussian martyrs the Blessed Antony and George is venerated in the parish church of the Roman Protomartyr Saints in Rome. The icon was donated by the Apostolic Visitator for Greek-Catholics in Belarus, Archimandrite Serge Gajek, to Cardinal Camillo Ruini last November, on the occasion of the consecration of the new altar in the church. The cardinal in turn donated the icon to the church, and now both parishioners and the Belorussian children who are often guests in the parish pray in front of it. On 2 February, when the traditional “Day of Prayer for Friends and Benefactors” is celebrated in the Greek-Catholic parishes of Belarus, the Apostolic Visitator himself concelebrated a mass in the church of the Roman Protomartyr Saints for the intention of the Italian families that for years have hosted Belorussian children who have come to Italy to recover their health.
