Authorities Censored A Mural In A Vitebsk Church

• 16.12.2025, 13:38

Sketched out a few figures.

It turned out that not only the figure of a woman in a dress was painted on the altar fresco in the church of St. Anthony in Vitebsk. As we told you, the image of a man who turned to the risen Christ disappeared from the main fresco, writes katolik.life.

In this very conceptualized church, every image has meaning, and in another part of the fresco, two sleeping soldiers were depicted. They symbolized the Roman guards at Christ's Tomb who slept through His Resurrection.

The soldiers, however, were dressed in more modern military garb. This element of the fresco had this meaning: Light will overcome darkness, not through militaristic force, but in spite of it, when the soldiers fall asleep.

These figures have also disappeared. How the main fresco with painted images looks now, you can see on the photo. Below is a photo in its original form.

The mural was censored at the time when the ideology of the Belarusian state strengthened the cult of militarism - after 2020. As far as the believers know, the order to paint over the figures without consulting the author of the mural came from Bishop of Vitebsk Oleh Butkevich. However, it is not known whether it happened on his initiative. The artistic solution of the interior of the church, consecrated in 2017, was previously agreed with the bishop.