Wladyslaw Blin

Władysław Blin (Belor. Uladzіslaў Blіn, born May 31, 1954) was Bishop of the diocese of Vitebsk, the Catholic diocese centered in the city of Vitebsk (Belarus).

He was born May 31, 1954 in Poland, in Świdwin (Western Pomerania) in the Polish family immigrated after the war in Poland from the West-Belarusian town Zadorozhe (Glubokoye district of Polotsk, Vitebsk region and now), and settlements in the territories of Western Poland, from which after the war were expelled German population. Later the family moved to the village Slesin Kujawy and Pomerania, where Vladislav Blin, and spent his childhood. Wladyslaw Blin chosen path in life early Catholic priest. He was in Poland spiritual Catholic education, he graduated from the Higher Theological Seminary in Wloclawek, in the same May 25, 1980 by Jan Zaremba, bishop of Włocławek, was ordained a priest. Wladyslaw Blin continued his education at the Catholic University of Lublin and the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw (now the University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw).

In 1989, when the Soviet Union lifted restrictions on religious life, he moved to the historic homeland of his family to Belarus, where he was appointed rector of the Catholic parish in Mahileu. He founded the first in the entire region of Mahileu Catholic parish, the Church had secured the return of the church of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and St. Stanislaus, where he became abbot. In 1998, he received a doctorate in theological science. His doctoral work was devoted to St. Joseph. On October 13, 1999, he was appointed the first bishop of the newly formed diocese of Vitebsk, and was consecrated on November 20, 1999. The principal consecrator was Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek. As his episcopal motto, Blin chose the phrase Soli Deo. On June 14, 2006 he was elected deputy chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus. He is Chairman of the Ecumenical Commission and the Commission's general pastoral bishops in Belarus. The Pope accepted his resignation on February 25, 2013.