Venerable Martyr Athanasius (Filippovich) of Brest

The Venerable Martyr Athanasius was born around 1595-1597. He served as a tutor in noble households, and in 1627 took monastic vows at the Vilnius Holy Spirit Monastery. He was hegumen of the Dubno Monastery (1632-1636), from which he was expelled by the Catholic magnate Radziwiłł, and later hegumen (archimandrite) of the Brest Monastery of St. Simeon (1640-1648).

He became one of the leading polemicists against the 1596 Union of Brest, author of the autobiographical and polemical work "Diariusz" — a landmark of Belarusian literature. In July 1648, amid the Khmelnytsky uprising, he was arrested on false charges of collaborating with the rebels, tortured, and shot (with two shots to the forehead) on the night of September 4-5, 1648, near the village of Hershanovichi (Hermanovichi) outside Brest.

His relics were found incorrupt on May 1, 1649; his formal glorification took place in 1658-1666.

IMPORTANT CORRECTIONS: the category has been corrected from "hieromartyr" to "venerable martyr" — Athanasius was a monk and hegumen, not a bishop or priest. The date "January 18" present in the original entry was a contamination — it is the commemoration of an entirely different, far more famous saint, St. Athanasius the GREAT of Alexandria (a classic name-collision bug on "Athanasius") — it has been removed as unreliable. The venerable martyr's correct commemoration is September 5/18 (death) plus July 20/August 2 (uncovering of relics, 1649), and the movable Synaxis of Belarusian Saints.