Brest. St. Nicholas Brotherhood Church.

The history of the Brotherhood Church of St. Nicholas begins in 1885, when the Nicholas Brotherhood, revived in 1867, built a wooden brotherhood church in honor of St. Nicholas, which burned down in a fire that raged in Brest-Litovsk on May 4-5, 1895. That same year, the brothers decided to begin construction of a new stone church, and in the meantime, a temporary wooden church and a stone chapel were built (1903). The strength to raise funds and for the construction itself was invisibly provided by St. Nicholas, whose icon miraculously survived the fire.

The construction of the new stone church began in 1903 and was completed in 1906. The author of the project was the Grodno provincial architect I.K. Plotnikov. On December 19, 1906, the church was solemnly consecrated. The sum of 72,000 rubles was spent on the construction work, of which 25,000 rubles were donated by the Holy Synod. The rest of the money was collected by the Brotherhood, parishioners, Orthodox residents of Serbia and Bulgaria. Sailors, participants in the Russo-Japanese War and the Battle of Tsushima, made their feasible contribution to the construction of the church. The remaining amount was contributed by Emperor Nicholas II himself, who also handed over a list of the names of the dead sailors for permanent commemoration. The construction of the church was facilitated by the former Grodno governor, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire P.A. Stolypin.

The temple is built in the Russian-Byzantine architectural style with elements of Moscow church architecture of the 17th century. In addition to the main altar in the name of St. Nicholas, the temple had two chapels: in honor of the holy apostle James Alphaeus and in the name of the holy great martyr Barbara.

During the troubled times of war and revolution, during the Polish and German occupations, services in the church did not stop. However, in the spring of 1962, the church was closed, all the crosses above the domes were sawn off, and the crosses that decorated the façade were knocked down. For almost 30 years, it housed the repository of the State Archives of the Brest Region. In the summer of 1989, the crosses on the domes of St. Nicholas Church began to shine again thanks to the initiative of the believers and the efforts of the new rector of the church. On January 7, 1990, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, the first divine liturgy was celebrated in the church, and on February 18 of the same year, the Metropolitan of Minsk and Grodno, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Filaret, Bishops of Brest and Kobrin Konstantin, and of Lublin and Kholm Abel consecrated the altar in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In 1994, the restoration work was finally completed, and the temple acquired a dignified appearance.

Since 2002, the parish has been actively involved in the sisterhood of mercy, helping cancer patients, patients of the Brest District Hospital, and low-income people.

On May 28, 2005, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima, a memorial sign in honor of the sailors was opened and consecrated by Bishop John at the St. Nicholas Brotherhood Church. The following words are written on the memorial stone: "to the sailors who participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, their families with gratitude for the construction of the church and in memory of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima." According to historical data, more than a hundred natives of the Brest region participated in the Russo-Japanese War, 55 of whom died. The names of more than thirty of them are documented and carved in gold letters on marble plaques installed in the vestibule of the church.