Jabłeczna, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, March 20, 2025
Photo: notesfrompoland.com
Polish authorities are worried that the historic Orthodox Monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jabłeczna in eastern Poland could eventually find itself outside of Polish territory.
Poland’s national water authority has announced a project to reinforce the Bug River’s banks along the Belarus border, responding to fears that ongoing erosion might alter the river’s path, thereby leaving the 15th-century monastery situated there outside of Poland, reports Notes from Poland.
According to tradition, the monastery was founded after an icon of St. Onuphrius floated down the river.
“In the case of the monastery in Jabłeczna, the breach [in the river bank] occurred about a kilometer away from the buildings, so there’s no direct threat that water will wash away the foundations,” Tomasz Makowski from the local branch of Polish Waters told Polish media.
Nonetheless, the agency fears that river water might stream through the damaged section into adjacent oxbow lakes, potentially isolating the monastery.
“Hypothetically, in this situation, the course of the Bug River, which is a border river, may change and [the monastery] may be cut off from the territory of Poland,” said Makowski.
A dispute has emerged over the cause of the Bug River bank breach, with Polish Waters attributing it to “natural erosion,” while environmental scientist Andrzej Czech suggests it resulted from the government’s December deforestation initiative, when hundreds of trees were removed to install electronic border monitoring systems aimed at curbing illegal migration from Belarus.
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The monastery’s revered icons of the Mother of God and St. Onuphrius. Photo: dziennikwschodni.pl
The Monastery of St. Onuphrius in the village of Jableczna, between Terespol and Koden, near the Bug River, was built in the 15th century and is dedicated to the Egyptian hermit of the 4th century.
It has been the only Orthodox monastery in the area of the diocese. It played a significant role during the time of the Union of Brest, being an important center of the Orthodox faith. In the first half of the 17th century the Bishop of Chełm resided there.
This monastery is one of very few in Poland to have always been Orthodox. The beginning of the 20th century was the greatest in the monastery’s history, when there were 80 monks, 5 schools, a patient’s clinic, as well as a farm operating there.
The monastery is home to the Jabłeczna Icon of the Mother of God and the icon of St. Onuphrius that floated down the Bug River.
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