death_date consecration other_post created_cardinal_by nationality article_title birth_date archdiocese term_end church death_place title image_size term_start rank image diocese name cardinal predecessor birth_place type successor ordination
21 july 2011 21 may 1991 cardinal-priest -lrb- 1991-2006 -rrb- of san gerardo maiella apostolic administrator of pinsk john paul ii estonian kazimierz Świątek
 21 october 1914 minsk-mohilev 14 june 2006 roman catholic pinsk , belarus cardinal archbishop of minsk-mohilev 230px 21 may 1991 cardinal-priest file : kazimir sviontek 01.jpg minsk-mohilev kazimierz Świątek 26 november 1994 zygmunt konstanty antoni Łoziński valga , estonia '' -lrb- russian empire -rrb- '' cardinal tadeusz kondrusiewicz 8 april 1939
kazimierz Świątek

kazimierz cardinal Świątek -lrb- belarusian : '' Казімір Свёнтак '' , kazimir sviontak ; 21 october 1914 -- 21 july 2011 -rrb- was a cardinal of the roman catholic church who was most known for his resistance to cold war-era soviet communism and for his service in minsk , belarus .
cardinal swiatek was the former metropolitan archbishop of minsk-mohilev , and apostolic administrator of pinsk .
Świątek was born to polish parents in the municipality of walk , in what was then the russian empire , the present-day municipality of valga , estonia .
his family was deported to siberia during the russian revolution .
his father died fighting in the polish-soviet war .
the future cardinal lived in newly independent poland from 1922 .
after completing his philosophical and theological studies at the seminary in pinsk , Świątek was ordained as a roman catholic priest in 1939 , and then was sent to the parish of prużany .
the soviet union occupied pinsk after the nazi-soviet pact divided poland in 1939 .
Świątek was arrested by the nkvd in april 1941 , and held on death row in brest for two months .
father Świątek escaped from prison , taking advantage of the confusion caused by the nazi german invasion of the soviet union on 22 june 1941 , and returned to pruzhany .
in december 1944 , the nkvd arrested swiatek for a second time .
the following year he was sentenced to 10 years hard labor in a concentration camp , and spent nine years in siberia and the north of the soviet union , working in the taiga and in the mines .
after his release in june 1954 , he returned to pinsk .
in 1988 , he was made a monsignor by pope john paul ii , who in 1991 appointed him metropolitan archbishop of minsk-mohilev and apostolic administrator of pinsk , and on 26 november 1994 created and proclaimed him cardinal-priest of `` san gerardo maiella '' .
he was elected as the first president of the conference of catholic bishops of belarus , which according to the church 's website `` underlines his leading role in the church in belarus . ''
in july 2006 , Świątek , then aged 91 , his resignation for reasons of age and declining health from the offices of metropolitan archbishop of minsk-mohilev was accepted by pope benedict xvi , but he remained apostolic administrator of pinsk until 30 june 2011 , when tadeusz kondrusiewicz , his successor as metropolitan archbishop of minsk-mohilev , replaced him also as apostolic administrator of pinsk .
