EUROPEAN HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY
THE FRANCIS SKARYNA BELARUSIAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
“UNDERSTANDING FREEDOM”
Readings in Honour of the Centenary of Father Alexander Nadson
Vilnius, 14–15 April 2026
“The understanding of freedom comes hand in hand with spiritual liberation”, Fr. A. Nadson
In 2026, we mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Father Alexander Nadson (1926–2015) — priest, translator, researcher, cultural and spiritual leader of the Belarusian émigré community, an apostle of Belarusian identity in the West. His immense contribution includes studies of early Belarusian printed books and kitabs, significant monographs on religious history, and translations from Greek of the corpus of liturgical texts of the Byzantine rite. Father Nadson was one of the founders and the long-standing director of the Skaryna Library — a prominent centre of Belarusian culture and scholarship in the West — and, as Apostolic Visitor for Belarusians abroad, he maintained close relationships with Belarusian diaspora communities around the world. He was also the first to bring medical aid from abroad for the victims of Chernobyl in Belarus.
Suggested thematic areas:
- The spiritual and educational work of Father A. Nadson
- The Belarusian diaspora and its role in the twentieth century
- Translation and publishing: contributions to the development of the Belarusian language and culture
- Educational and archival work (the Skaryna Library collections, library, museum, and archives)
- Belarusian identity in the émigré milieu
- Memoirs and testimonies of contemporaries