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On February 3 the Catholic Church in Vladivostok will celebrate the reconsecration of the Cathedral, a special event held on the 70th anniversary of the execution of five martyrs by the Soviet secret police, a distressing page in a dramatic history of the cathedral.

The construction of the Catholic Church in Vladivostok started in 1899 and in 1921 the stone cathedral built in neo-gothic style was blessed, Fr.Myron Effing, the pastor for Most Holy Mother of God Catholic Church said.

However, after the Bolshevik revolution, the parishioners were dispelled and the building was taken by the Communist government for use as a state archive. Five of the Catholic Church believers – Martsin Malinevsky, Anton Gerasimuk, Valery Gerasimuk, Sigizmund Brzhezinsky and Yan Strudzinsky – were shot down by the NKVD on charges of ‘being counter-revolutionary undercover Polish religious organization.’

The NKVD, People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for political repression during the Stalinist era.

The five martyrs were executed on February 3, 1938. The day became a tragic date in the history of the Church. Only in 1993 the building was given back to the Catholics in Vladivostok and the restoration work began.

“The renovation started with the windows - stained glass was specifically ordered for them in Brest, Belarus,” Fr. Effing revealed. ‘The windows looked awful, their wooden frames hadn’t been repaired for sixty years,” he recalled. Presently the stained glass windows are the core attraction of the Church interior and the images on them reflect the stages of the Lord’s life.



According to Fr. Effing, the bells, delivered from Poland and blessed by Pope John Paul II, will become another highlight.

The cathedral will attain its final look this summer, when the work on bell towers will be completed and an organ will be installed. “There is much work ahead - repairing the roof, building the small towers,” Fr. Effing shared.

The Church has also not escaped everyday problems of Russian reality with its altar being stopped and delayed at the local customs office.

“We hope everything will turn out well,” Fr. Effing said. “Miracles happen,” he added hopefully.