Belarusian Orthodox Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk information

Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk
Leszcze Monastery
Location
Country	Belarus
Headquarters	Turov, later Pinsk
Statistics
Churches	Dormition of the Mother of God Church in Pinsk
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodoxy
Established	around 1088
Dissolved	1596 (conversion to the Uniate Church)
Leadership
Parent church	Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Bishop	Jonah Gogol (last)

The Belarusian Orthodox Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk was an Orthodox ecclesiastical administrative unit based in Turov and later in Pinsk, under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Kyiv. It operated from the 11th century until 1596, when it transitioned to the Uniate Church by the decision of its ordinary, Bishop Jonah. Although the majority of the clergy and laity of the eparchy at that time favored remaining under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the administrative unit never returned to the Orthodox Church. Formally, the Turov Eparchy was not abolished. In 1621, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophanes III, illegally appointed Bishop Abraham of Stachona as the Bishop of Pinsk. However, in 1632, when the parallel existence of Orthodox and Uniate hierarchies was legalized in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk was not reactivated. Its former territory was not incorporated into the newly created Belarusian Eparchy (Mstsislaw, Mogilev, and Orsha). Instead, it was managed by the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolitan. New bishops of Turov and Pinsk were no longer appointed. The tradition of the Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk is continued by the post-Soviet administrative units of the Belarusian Orthodox Church: Eparchy of Turov and Mazyr and the Eparchy of Pinsk and Luninets.

Initially, the eparchy was closely associated with the Principality of Turov. In the 16th century, at the time of its actual dissolution, it encompassed the Pinsk district, the former Duchy of Dubrovytsia, the Bobryk and Vitsk estates, and the former Duchies of Turov and Horodok. The jurisdiction of the bishop of Turov and Pinsk was also recognized by some parishes located outside the described area but historically connected with the administrative unit. Sources confirm the existence of 188 parishes under the bishop of Turov and Pinsk during this period; the figure of 255 pastoral stations reported by some church historians is considered unlikely. The eparchy also had at least a dozen monasteries, the most significant being the Monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb in Turov in the early period, and later the Lauryshava Monastery and the Leszcze Monastery.