There is no exact date when the church in Wolowel was built and to which denomination it belonged. The “Geographical dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic countries” mentions the municipality of Wolowel as part of Dobra Królewska Zakoziel.

The church was first mentioned in 1569, in connection with the formation of the Union of Lublin, as a Uniate church.

The list of Christian Catholic settlements of 1726 mentions Wolowel.

The Church of Great Martyr George the Victorious was built in 1766 from wood. It was built as a Uniate church. It is not known what became of the old church and was the Church of St. George the Victorious built on the site of the old church.

There is a description “Description of churches and parishes. Grodno Orthodox Church Calendar.” With a description of the villages, the number of parishioners, a description of the church school and the land at the church.

The church is built of a rectangular main and pentagonal altar logs united by a gable shingled roof, which formed triangular canopies in the places where the logs were joined. The main western facade is completed with a curvilinear gable flanked by 2 four-sided towers with hipped roofs and chapels above them. Above the altar blockhouse there is a bulbous chapter. On both sides of the apse (vault) there are low sacristy and altar. The walls are paneled. The window openings are rectangular, on the main facade there are semicircular lucarnes. Above the entrance there are choirs. The apse is highlighted by a wooden iconostasis made in 1830. (as follows from the correspondence about the provision of the Lithuanian diocese of the statements of the number of arranged iconostases in the churches in 1834 and the Volovelsk church was arranged a new iconostasis.) Icons of the 18th-19th centuries. “St. George the Victorious”, “Archangel Michael”, “Our Lady of the Amplification”. Near the church there is a frame two-tier belfry, covered with a low hipped roof: the first tier is blind, the second through with a boarded parapet. The bell tower was first mentioned in archival documents in 1899. The bell with the date “1858” was preserved. St. George’s Church is a monument of folk wooden architecture with Baroque elements.

The Marmon site has preserved in general access metric books of the Uniate of Wolowiel church, they are available at link 1797 to 1823.

Also metric books of Uniates can be found in RGIA, but unfortunately they are not available online. You can read the description here, Page 620. From 1749 to 1801.

It is also worth mentioning the Uniate priest at Wolowel Church:

Druzylouski Onufry, Druzylouski Onufriy, * 1789. Ordained by Metropolitan I.-I. Bulgak 1820; priest of the church in Wolowiel, Kobrynsky district. 1832-25.02.1837. [575, sheet. 61; 576, sheet 70 adv. -71; 695]

In the 1840s, St. George’s Church was given to the Orthodox. In 1865-1866 the church was moved to the center of the village of Wolowiel, and it was renovated.

Earlier Wolowiel church was located on the tract of land Pobedyshche (in the local Pole or what to call in another Tuteisham language), later (2nd half of the 19th century) because of the fact that the farms of Wolowiel village shrank it was on the outskirts of the village and it was decided by the parishioners to move it to the center of Wolowiel village. And to this day it is still there. And on the place where the old church stood there was a spring for a long time.

In the statement of the state of the churches of Bezdziez sub-district for 1883-1884. In the Wolowiel church"…1066 male and 1099 female parishioners", the church was repaired in 1865 - 1866. “April 23. The Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious… 2) In the village of Volavle, Kobrinsk uyezd, Bezdziez benefice, in the parish church. The church is wooden, with the same bell tower, built in 1766 by the landowner Orzheshko, 42 versts from Kobrin. - The parishioners are 1302 males and 1272 females, and all 2574 in 7 villages: Wolowel, Halik, Gurka, Dyatlowicze, Korsuny, Suliczew and Jamnik - 7 versts. There is a church school in Sulichev, with 28 pupils boys and 4 girls. - The parish consists of 2 persons: a priest and a psalmist, with a salary of 496 rubles. The land at the church; homestead 3 tithes, arable 25 tithes, hayfield 26 tithes, and in total: 54 tithes.” There is no exact information about the first priest of our church, but from archival documents we can assume that one of the first Orthodox priests was Priest Onufriy Druzilowski. And served in St. George’s parish until 1864. Later, Fr. Later Fr. Onufriy was replaced by Archpriest Flor Vasiliewicz Balabuszewicz. In 1864 the Wolowel public school was opened and the teacher of the school was Archpriest Flor Balabuszewicz. On the territory of the church there is a burial place of Fr. Flor Balabuszewicz (1830-1892), carved on a large stone slab by sculptor Malishevsky from Kobrin. After the death of Fr. Flor arrived to serve his son John Flor Balabuszewicz. And serves (1892 - 1821), (1924 - 1938). There was a time when Fr. John was transferred to other parishes and he returned to Wolowel at the request of parishioners in 1924. From 1921 - 1923 Fr. Phillip Koropkow served, later he was transferred to Pinsk. To replace Fr. Phillip was succeeded by Fr. Valentin Krasnikov, but he served for a short time, until 1924. At the request of the parishioners, Fr. John Bala.

There is also a list of Orthodox clergy after the Council of Polotsk. It is worth noting Onuphrius Druzilowski, who converted from Unia to Orthodoxy:

• Onufry Druzilowski (1832 - 1864)
• Flor Balabuszewicz (1864 - 1892)
• John Balabuszewicz (1892 - 1921)
• Phillip Koropkow (1921 - 1923)
• Valentin Krasnikow (1923 - 1924)
• John Florov Balabuszewicz (1924 - 1938)
• Pavel Zlatkowski (1938 - 1943)

At the time of II Rzeczypospolitej, the church was Orthodox and active, which can be seen on maps from the 1930s.

On the territory of the church the burial place of Fr. John and Mrs. Julia. In 1938-1943 Fr. Paul Zlatkowski served. By denunciation he was almost shot by the Germans, but a local resident, Derenczuk Konstantyn, managed to get his family out of the village. Fr. Paul and his family left for America. In 1983, Fr. Paul’s wife, Matushka Irina, came to Russia on an excursion. A meeting was organized with Konstantin Derenczuk, who saved them from death. There is also a list of Orthodox priests and people who have looked after and introduced service in the church since 1943:

• From 1943-1946, Priest Nicholas Vasiliewicz served.
• In 1947. Priest Wladimir Malaferczik serves.
• In 1947 - 1951 served Prt. Nikolai Kreidicz.
• From 1947 -2004g. regent in St. George’s Church was Ludmila Semenowna Derenczuk, born in 1925. She was a parishioner of Wolowel village
• In 1951 - 1953 Priest Boris Novikov served.
• In 1954 - 1955 served Priest Matvei Lyasz.
• In 1955 - 1956, Priest George Maliszewski served.
• In 1956 - 1961 serves Prt. Simeon Kostko. After the opening of the church in the village of Perkowicze of the Drohichin sub-district of the Brest Eparchy Fr. Simeon serves there.
• In 1962 - serves priest Nicholas Zanko.
• Since 1978, serves priest John Stepanowicz Zaruba. Now he serves in the Brest Eparchy, in the Maloryta bishopric. Since 1979, Priest John Nikiforowicz Kuharczuk has been serving.
• In 1980 - 1991 served as a priest Vasily Zholnerczyk
• From 1991 - 2004 served Prt. Nikolai Fedorowicz Paszkiewicz, now serves in the village of Losince of the Drohichyn district of the Brest Eparchy.
• From 2004 to the present day, Priest Sergius Nemszon has been serving in St. George’s Church.
• From 2004 -2013 the regent of St. George’s Church was Sofia Stepanowna Zuruk, born in 1937.

Shortly before 2010, the church was renovated, and the former hexagonal chapels were replaced by onion-shaped ones.

References and information used in the material:

1. http://drogblag.by/d-volovel-svyato-georgievskiy-hram/
2. wikimedia.org
3. Photo by A. Dybovsky
4. The priest in the Belarusian society: prosopography of the Union clergy 1596–1839. / Denis Liseychikov. – Minsk, 2015. – 719 p., [16] l. ill.
5. https://drevo-info.ru