The brick church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in the village of Kosyn, in the gmina of Wola Uhruska, was built at the end of the 19th century as the Orthodox Church of Saint John the Baptist. The project was designed by Viktor Sychuhov, an architect whose designs were used for many churches in the Chełm region at the time. The small village, home to fewer than two hundred people, lies between Uhrusk and the Sobibór forests.
Uniate Parish
Kosyn is mentioned in 1570 as a village belonging to the Chełm starosty. According to the "Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland", the Greek Catholic parish here was founded in 1718 by the estate owner Wacław Rzewuski; the first wooden church was built in 1738–1739 and repaired in 1843. In 1875, the parish was forcibly converted to Orthodoxy. The parish chronicle recounts a local legend: when the Uniate priest was being persuaded to convert to the new faith, he turned a bucket of water upside down and said that it was not the same thing.
Sychuhov's Church
In 1877, the wooden church burned down, and a brick one in the Byzantine-Russian style was erected in its place in 1888–1891; various sources give construction dates with a variance of a year or two. The iconostasis was made by Prechner's workshop in Warsaw, and its icons were painted in Moscow. The church was repaired in 1908. In the interwar years, a parish of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church operated in Kosyn.
Church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka
Following the deportation of Ukrainians to the USSR in 1944–1946, the building was taken over by Catholics, and in 1946 the parish of Saint Stanislaus Kostka was established here; it includes Kosyn, Macoszyn Duży, Macoszyn Mały, and Osowa. The church was thoroughly renovated in 1953–1961. The main altar, donated by Bishop Ignacy Świrski, was brought from the former seminary in Janów Podlaski and installed in 1965; the last major renovation took place in 2014–2021.
Inside the church is an image of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus with an interesting history. It once hung in a chapel in Malaryta, now in Belarus. It was donated by General Józef Szamota in memory of his son, Major Jerzy Szamota, who died on October 30, 1933, rescuing three children from a fire. A brick ossuary from the 1930s has also been preserved near the church.
How to get there
Kosyn lies about 10 km north of Uhrusk, reached by road 816 Chełm — Włodawa. The nearest sights are the Church of the Assumption in Uhrusk and the Church of John the Baptist in the same town. To the north begin the Sobibór forests with the routes Sobibór Forests Trail from Lake Białe to Sobibór and the Sobibór Loop, and you can read about the entire region in the article Polish Polissia. The church is opened for masses. For citizens of Ukraine, this is Poland: a foreign passport is required.
