The Basilian monastery has been mentioned in Torokany since the 16th century.

It is mentioned in 2 books:

• Pawluczuk U.A.: Monastic life in the Second Polish Republic. University of Bialystok Publishing House, 2007, p. 25.
• A. Mironowicz, Monastic life in the former Republic of Poland, In: ed. A. Mironowicz, U. Pawluczuk, P. Chomik: Monastic Life in the Republic. Bialystok: Department of the History of Borderline Cultures of the Institute of Sociology, University of Bialystok, 2001, p. 35.

Torokany has long belonged to the Orthodox monastery of St. Nicholas Zidiczyn. But after the Union of Brest, the whole complex was handed over to the Uniates. In 1656 in Torokany was held a congregation of the Basilian order, and already in 1599 Torokany were given to the Roman nobleman Peter Arcudiu, where then in 1710 was built a new church instead of the old one. And in 1712 the stone buildings of the monastery were built by Agafia Piaszczynska, a Wolyn kasztelianka. This construction and renovation of the monastery was approved by Lev Kiszka with the approval of the Byten Congregation.

In Torokany lived protoarchimandrites who came from the Province of the Holy Trinity: Polykarp Migunewizc (1743-1747), Irakli Lysanski (1751-1759), Porfiry Skarbek-Wazynski (1772-1780 and 1788-1790) and the penultimate protoarchimandrite Athanasius Falkowski (1793-1802).

The list of Christian Catholic settlements of 1726 mentions Torokany (Torokanie).

At the moment it is not known what happened to the old church. In 1780, a church was built in Torokany by Bishop Gedeon Dashkewicz-Gobacki of Pinsk, a stone church. From the beginning of the XVIII century there was the residence of the proto-archimandrite - the head of the order, at the monastery there was a large library with unique folios. Around the monastery there were gardens, orchards, apiaries and a park belonging to it.

Also in RGIA there are preserved metric books for this church from 1797 to 1801.

From July 21 to September 13, 1780 in the Torokany monastery took place an important in the history of the Basilian Chin general chapter, at which the Order was divided into four provinces: the Belarusian province of St. Nicholas, the Russian province of the Protection of the Mother of God, the Galician province of the Holy Savior and the Lithuanian province of the Holy Trinity. Also in the monastery in 1784 was held the chapter of the Lithuanian province, and in 1802 - the last general chapter of the Basilian Order in the Russian Empire.

On the Marmon site there are Uniate metrics for 1823-1842.

There is also a list of the Uniate clergy of the church:

• Wasilewski Jan, installed by Vladimir-Brest bishop L. Kishka in the village Torokany, Brest region. 1712 year.
• Zawacki Marcin, * 1771. From the family of a secular nobleman; consecrated by the auxiliary bishop of Turau I.-I. Bulgak in v. Torokany, Kobryn district. September 16, 1798.
• Zauscinski Karol, * 1773. Ordained by the auxiliary bishop of Turow I.-I. Bulgak in v. Torokany, Kobryn district. 14.03.1798.
• Teodorvich Grigoriy, * 1801. Consecrated by the Brest bishop-suffragan L.L. Jaworowski in 1825; priest of the church in Torokany, Kobryn district. 1832 - 25.02.1837.

The abbots of the monastery at different periods were:

• Ivan Oleszewski (ca. 1718-1721).
• Matei Kozaczenko (1730).
• Nikodym Karpinski (1761).
• Ambrosi Kalinowski (1804-1807).
• Josaphat Raczynski (1818-1826).
• Josaphat Cywinsky (1826 - after 1833)

After 1839 the church was handed over to the Orthodox together with the whole complex of the monastery. It was served by 25 monks. In 1842 the monastery was ranked in the 3rd class. In 1874 it was abolished, and its buildings and estate were transferred to the Grodno Boris and Gleb Monastery. The monetary sums were transferred to the nunneries of Wilno and Grodno. In 1897 the church in Torokany became a regular parish church.

On Rittich’s maps for 1864, the church in Torokany is marked on the map

Also in 1866, Schubert’s maps show the church and the then former Basilian monastery.

In the book “Descriptions of churches and parishes. Grodno Orthodox Church Calendar. Volume 1”, there is information about the church and monastery in Torokany for 1899 from the time of its mention.

Starting from the time of II Rzeczypospolitej 1918 - 1938. On the territory of eastern Poland (now Brest and Grodno regions, Belarus) Uniatism (so-called Neounia) was returned, so almost all Orthodox churches were marked on Polish maps as churches. But we will talk about this in the next article.

The church in Torokany was active and was considered to be a Uniate church. There are preserved metrics in the Grodno archive.

The church was also marked on Polish maps.

Many photos of the church and monastery of that time, still in operation, have also survived.

The Torokans were visited by the Catholic Nuncio, which was captured in the photo below.

And here in the photo are the Uniate youth with their mentor.

After the arrival of the communist authorities, the monastery and church fell into disrepair and were subsequently destroyed:

The memorial of the church was destroyed by a fire in 1943, and by a massacre during the partisan activities. The building was burned down, and the people of Murov were killed. “The old church building is not suitable for prayer purposes due to its technical condition, the believers do not undertake repairs, the priest has been absent for more than nine months, and the service is not held” [DABV F.1482, vop.2, pl. 6, ark. 32]. In 1948 the building was given to the Zdanow Kalgas (collective farm) for further expansion into an agricultural club, and in the 1950s the cantonments were razed.

The modern parish church was built in 2004. With the blessing of Archbishop of Brest and Kobrin Konstantin (Khomich), the place for the construction of the church was consecrated by Archpriest Piotr Pinchuk of Drohichy district on June 9, 1998.

There are also remnants of the old monastery, which are now used by the local collective farm.

Also Alexander Pinszuk made a virtual restoration of the church, if it had been preserved, could look like this:

Links and information used in the material:

• The priest in the Belarusian society: prosopography of the Union clergy 1596–1839. / Denis Liseychikov. – Minsk, 2015. – 719 p., [16] l. ill.
• https://hrambel.by
• Alexander Strokach
• http://www.radzima.org
• https://ru.wikipedia.org
• Alexander Pinchuk
• http://mail.kostomloty.com/node/214
• Bohdan Kurowski, Wspomnienia z důbzníchta (cz. 2)
• http://drogblag.by