Wladyslaw Blin Bishop of the Vitebsk Diocese, a Catholic diocese with its center in the city of Vitebsk Date of Birth: 31.05.1954 Country: Belarus

1. Early Life and Education
2. Path to Priesthood
3. Mission in Belarus
4. Episcopacy and Ministry

Early Life and Education

Vladislav Blin was born on May 31, 1954, in Swidwin, Poland, to a Polish family displaced from Western Belarus after World War II. The family later moved to the village of Slesin, where Blin grew up.

Path to Priesthood

Blin pursued a vocation in the Catholic priesthood from a young age. He studied at the Higher Theological Seminary in Wloclawek, where he was ordained as a priest on May 25, 1980, by Bishop Jan Zaremba. Blin furthered his education at the Lublin Catholic University and the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw (now the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University).

Mission in Belarus

In 1989, as religious restrictions eased in the Soviet Union, Blin returned to his ancestral homeland in Belarus. He established the first Catholic parish in the Mogilev region and secured the return of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Stanislav, where he served as rector.

Episcopacy and Ministry

On October 13, 1999, Blin was appointed the first bishop of the newly-established Diocese of Vitebsk. He was consecrated on November 20, 1999, by Cardinal Kazimierz Swiontek. Blin's episcopal motto is "Soli Deo" (Only for God).

Blin has held numerous leadership roles within the Catholic Church in Belarus, including Vice-Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops and Chairman of the Ecumenical Commission and the Commission for General Pastoral Work.