Holy New Martyrs of Jasenovac exhibition held in Vitebsk during Slavianski Bazaar Festival

An emotional exhibition — The Holy New Martyrs of Jasenovac — has opened in Vitebsk’s Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord (the lower church of the Holy Assumption Cathedral). These are more than just paintings; they are colourful representations of suffering and prayer. The works are written by the nun Maria (Antić), who, despite never having studied painting, picked up a brush to share the suffering of the Serbian people with the world.

The exhibition is held as part of the Slavianski Bazaar Festival, which has a long history of bringing together the artistic and spiritual unity of Slavic peoples. This year’s Slavianski Blagovest choral holiday programme was supplemented with this significant display, which was organised by the Serbian Embassy in Belarus.

Jasenovac is a complex of concentration camps established by the Ustaša (a Croatian fascist movement). At least 83,000 Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and Croats who dared to oppose Nazi ideology were mercilessly slaughtered in Jasenovac between 1941 and 1945.

Archpriest Aleksandr Lesovoi, the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration, spoke about the terrible pages of this story at the opening of the exhibition, “650 were hacked to death with axes in front of others, 15,000 people were burned in furnaces in four days, and the rest were then buried. There were contests to see who could murder the most Serbs in a day. A gold watch was given to the victor, who cut the throats of 1,360 people.”

Pain and prayer brought the nun Maria (Antić) to painting. Learning about the sufferings of the Jasenovac prisoners, she could not remain indifferent. She picked up a brush with her bishop's blessing, and the tragedy and achievement of the New Holy Martyrs were brought to life on the paintings.

There is more to this show than just the past. It’s about how easy a person may lose their conscience and become a beast. Father Aleksandr also discusses the significance of memory preservation in averting a new form of insanity, saying, “We frequently gripe about little issues: the finger hurts, the pension was underpaid... Do you have any idea what these people endured?”