14 Facts About Alexander Nadson

Alexander Antonovich Nadson was the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusian emigre social and religious leader.

Fr Nadson was born Alyaksandar Bochka in the village of Haradzyeya near Nyasvizh, in the Second Polish Republic into a middle-class family.

Alexander Nadson studied at the Teacher Training College in Nyasvizh seminary.

Alexander Nadson was one of the founders of the Association of Belarusians in Great Britain and its chairman from 1951 to 1953.

Alexander Nadson was ordained priest of the Eastern Rite on 23 November 1958.

Alexander Nadson "had been guided on to this [ecclesiastical] path by Ceslaus Sipovich, who himself had been sent by the Vatican to establish a Belarusian Catholic Mission in the UK".

In July 1959, Alexander Nadson returned to London, where he resumed his activities in organizations of the Belarusian diaspora.

From 1971 Alexander Nadson was the director of the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum in London, the largest Belarusian library abroad.

Alexander Nadson published pioneering articles in the Society's Journal of Belarusian Studies on such topics as the life and writings of the early Belarusian Saint Cyril of Turau and a manuscript tefsir that he had acquired for the library, written in Arabic script by Muslim Tatars living in Belarus who had retained their religion but used Belarusian as their everyday language.

Alexander Nadson was a long time editor of the Journal.

Alexander Nadson was very active in translating liturgical texts into Belarusian.

Alexander Nadson actively supported the recreation of the Greek Catholic Church in Belarus that had been suppressed in that country since the 1830s.

Alexander Nadson was the author of several books on the history of Belarus and the head of a Chernobyl charity fund aimed at alleviating the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.

Alexander Nadson died in London on 15 April 2015, aged 88, and is buried in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley, North London.