Leo Garoshka


Archimandrite Leo Garoshka, MIC was a Belarusian Roman Catholic priest of the Eastern rite, religious and social activist and researcher of the history of religion in Belarus. His pseudonyms are LA Іskra, Anatoí Žmienia, Prakop Cavalieri and others.

Biography

Father Garoshka was originally from an Orthodox family with Uniate roots. He studied at the Navahrudak Belarusian school, after in 1936 in the Ukrainian Catholic University, and then went to study in Innsbruck, however, due to insufficient knowledge of the Latin language was not able to continue studies. Already a Catholic, he was ordained in Lviv in 1937, and he served as a Greek Catholic priest in Pinsk. In 1942 exarch Anton Niemancevič appointed him to the Board. He took part in the All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk in 1944.
Since 1944 he was in exile; in 1946 he was appointed head of the Belarusian Catholic Mission in France. Garoshka published a magazine Božym Šliacham. In 1959 he joined the Order of Marian. In 1960 Bishop Ceslaus Sipovich appointed him rector of the Belarusian Catholic Mission in the United Kingdom. From 1970 he headed the Belarusian section of Vatican Radio.
Garoshka died on 8 August 1977 in Paris at the time of surgery.