Martyrs Synaxis of the Martyrs of Chełm and Podlasie

The Synaxis of the Holy Martyrs of Chełm and Podlasie unites the memory of Orthodox believers — clergy and laypeople, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Poles by national self-identification — who suffered in the Chełm-Podlasie region of eastern Poland during World War II and the immediate postwar years.

The initial glorification took place on March 20, 2003, by decision of the Council of Bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church in Lublin: 8 named ascetics were canonized — Archbishop Onuphrius (Gagalyuk) of Kursk (†1938), Monk Ignatius (†1942), Priest Paul Shvaik with his wife Joanna (†1943), Priest Sergius Zakharchuk (†1943), Priest Lev Korobchuk (†1944), Priest Nicholas Golets (†1944), Priest Peter Ogrizenko (†1944), Archpriest Basil Martysh (†1945), and, as a separate item, the confessor Archimandrite Leontius (Stasevich, †1972) — together with the unnamed "whose names the Lord knows." The solemn glorification was celebrated on June 7-8, 2003, at Chełm Cathedral.

On October 29, 2019, the Diocesan Assembly added 30 more martyrs to the Synaxis — peasant wagoners shot by a unit of the Polish anti-communist underground "National Military Union" (NZW) under the command of Romuald Rajs ("Bury") near the village of Stare Puchały on January 31, 1946: Orthodox residents of Belarusian self-identification were detained on January 27 together with their carts and horses and executed four days later (some of the detained were released after declaring Polish nationality). On March 17, 2020, the list was supplemented with 30 more names from the same event.

Note: a separate historical episode not included in this Synaxis is the mass destruction of Orthodox churches in the Chełm region in the summer of 1938 (the "church-burning campaign") — a tragedy of the same region and decade, but not identical to the personal glorification of martyrs.

The feast day is movable; according to several sources it falls on the first Sunday of June (New Style), though the wording varies across sources ("the Sunday nearest May 19," "the first Sunday after June 1") — verification against the official calendar of the Polish Orthodox Church (orthodox.pl) is needed to establish it precisely; honestly noted here as provisional.