Jazep Hiermanovich (also Yazep Germanovich,

Belarusian Latin alphabet The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka (from , BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian, BGN/PCGN: , ) for the Latin script in general is the Latin script as used to write Belarusian. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet and incorporates feat ...

: Jazep Hermanovič; ; , 4 March 1890 - 26 December 1978) was a Belarusian

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

priest, poet and

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

survivor.

Early life

Hermanovich was born in

Halshany Halshany (; ; ; ; ) is an agrotown in Ashmyany District, Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Halshany selsoviet. It is known as the former seat of the Olshansky princely family and the location of the ruined H ...

into a Belarusian Roman Catholic peasant family. He studied at schools in

and

Ashmiany Ashmyany or Oshmyany is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus. It is located from Vilnius in Lithuania, and serves as the administrative center of Ashmyany District. The river Ashmyanka passes through the city. As of 2025, it has a population of ...

. In 1913, he graduated from a Catholic

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

and was ordained priest.

Work in West Belarus

In 1921, he became a member of the Society of the Belarusian School, an organization promoting Belarusian-language education in

West Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus (; ; ) is a historical region of modern-day Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. For twenty years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of th ...

which was then part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

and where ethnic Belarusians and other speakers of

minority language A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

s faced coercive

polonization Polonization or Polonisation ()In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі ...

by the Polish state. For some time, he preached Belarusian language sermons at the Church of St. Nicholas in Vilnius (then Wilno). In 1924, Hermanovich joined the

Congregation of Marian Fathers The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary () is a Catholic male clerical religious congregation founded, 1670, in Poland. It is also known as Marians of the Immaculate Conception. Its members ...

. He moved to the town of Druja where he was part of the community of Belarusian Marian Priests which was influential among Belarusian Catholics in interwar Poland. While in Druja, Hermanovich started publishing his literary works under the pseudonym Vincuk Advažny (''Vincuk the Brave'').

Missionary work in Harbin, Gulag captivity

In 1932, Hermanovich was sent to

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

, China, to do missionary work to spread the

Russian Greek Catholic Church The Russian Greek Catholic Church or Russian Byzantine Catholic Church is a ''sui juris, sui iuris'' (self-governing) Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular church that is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Hi ...

among the community of

Harbin Russians The term Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites (, ) refers to several generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. Russian settlers were responsible for turning Harbin into a Russian city with the majority of the ...

with the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin. He was head of the Catholic Lyceum of St Nicolas in Harbin, taking care of Russian orphans who lost their parents in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

.Ірына Багдановіч «Зайграю для Божае хвалы...» Да 120-годдзя з дня нараджэння Язэпа Германовіча (Вінцука Адважнага)
ryna Bahdanovič. "I shall play for God's glory..." - to the 120th anniversary of the birth of Jazep Hermanovič (Vincuk Advažny)- Наша вера asha viera, official magazine of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev">asha viera, official magazine of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev №3/2010 In 1936, Hermanovich returned to Poland because of health reasons. In 1938, he and other Belarusian Marian fathers were deported from Druja to central Poland as part of a wave of repressions by the Polish Government against Belarusian nationalists and language revival activists. After this, Hermanovich returned to Harbin. In 1948, Hermanovich was arrested by the communist Chinese authorities and handed over to the Soviet NKVD. After several months of interrogations and tortures, Hermanovich and other teachers of the Marian lyceum of Harbin were sentenced to 25 years of incarceration and labour in the

concentration camps. Hermanovich was deported to concentration camps near

Tayshet Tayshet ( rus, Тайшет, p=tɐjˈʂɛt, lit. ''cold river'' in the Kott language) is a town and the administrative center of Tayshetsky District in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Irkutsk, the administrative center of the obl ...

and then near

Bratsk Bratsk (, ; ) is a Types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara, Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir. It had population of . Etymology The name of the city, which is from the same ro ...

.Biography on the website of the Marian Congregation
(in Polish) While in the Gulag, Hermanovich held secret religious services among other inmates.

Emigration to the United Kingdom

After Stalin's death in 1953, Hermanovich was released and as a former Polish citizen deported to

communist Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

in 1955. From there he was able to move to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

and then to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where he joined the community of Belarusian Catholic priests ( Ceslaus Sipovic, Leo Haroshka,

Alexander Nadson Alexander Antonovich Nadson (; 8 August 1926 – 15 April 2015) was the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusian émigré social and religious leader. Early life Fr Nadson ...

and others) who had settled there after the Second World War. Since 1960, Father Hermanovich resided at the Marian House in North Finchley, London, until his death on 26 December 1978. He is buried at St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery along with his Marian confreres. While living in London, Hermanovich was teaching at St Cyril of Turau Belarusian school and was also an editor-in-chief of the Belarusian emigre Catholic journal ''Božym šlacham'', sent to subscribers all over the world. In London he published a number of literary works as well as translated the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of ...

External links

Selected works online
(in Belarusian)
Memoirs by Fr. Jazep Hermanovich
- audio (in Belarusian)

Literary works

* Як Казюк сабраўся да споведзі (''How Kaziuk prepared for the confession''), Vilnius, 1928; Minsk, 2011 * Казюковае жанімства (''Kaziuk’s wedding''), Vilnius, 1929 * Як Гануля зьбіралася ў Аргентыну (''How Hanula prepared to go to Argentina''), Vilnius, 1930. * Адам і Анелька (''Adam and Anelka''), Vilnius, 1931 * Канёк-Гарбунок (''The Little Humpbacked Horse'', adaptation of the tale by

Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov (; – ) was a Russian poet and author of the fairy-tale poem ''The Little Humpbacked Horse'' (''Konyok-Gorbunok''). Biography Pyotr Yershov was born in the village of Bezrukovo, Tobolsk Governorate (currently Ishimsk ...

), Vilnius, 1932. * Бэтлейка (''The batleyka''), Vilnius, 1932. * Унія на Палесьсі (''The Church Union in Polesia''), Albercin, 1932; Brest, 2004 * Беларускія цымбалы (''The Belarusian cymbalo''), Vilnius, 1933 * Казка аб рыбаку і рыбцы (''The tale of the fisher and the fish''), Vilnius, 1935. * Хлапец (''The boy''), Vilnius, 1935. * Гануліны клопаты (''Hanula’s worries''), Vilnius, 1935. * Кітай-Сібір-Масква (''China - Siberia - Moscow (memories)''), Munich, 1962; Minsk-St. Petersburg, 2003 * Пакутныя псальмы (''Penitential Psalms'', versed translation), Rome, 1964. * Przeżyłem sowieckie łagry. Wspomnienia (''I survived the Soviet concentration camps. Memoirs''), 1966 * Князь і лапаць. Сучасная казка (''The king and the

bast shoe Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast—fiber taken from the bark of trees, such as linden. They are a kind of basket, woven and fitted to the shape of a foot. Bast shoes are a traditional footwear of the forest areas of Northeaster ...

''), London, 1964. * Байкі і іншыя вершы (''Fables and other verses''), London, 1973. * Выбраныя творы (''Selected Works''), Minsk, 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermanovic 1890 births 1978 deaths People from Ashmyany district People from Oshmyansky Uyezd Belarusian Eastern Catholic priests Belarusian male poets Belarusian educators Belarusian Gulag detainees 20th-century Eastern Catholic clergy Eastern Catholic poets Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception History of Christianity in China Poet priests Burials at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery Catholic Church and minority language rights