The Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier (unofficially also called the Cathedral Church) is the cathedral of the Hrodna diocese, an architectural monument of decorative and monumental art of the Baroque and Rococo eras.

The construction of the Jesuit residence began after 1664, and of the stone church — in 1678. The construction was supervised and partially financed for ten years by priest Hieranim Dzievaltoŭski. On June 21, 1678, bishop Mikalaj Slupski consecrated the first stone of the new stone Church in the name of St. Francis Xavier. The work on the internal foundations and vault slabs was completed in 1683. By the spring of 1700, the building was complete enough to hold the first Mass. In 1702 domes were erected on the towers, the walls inside the church were plastered and benches were placed.

On December 6th, 1705, bishop Teador Patocki consecrated the temple in the presence of the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth August II and the Russian tsar Peter I. In 1725 a pendulum clock was installed on the bell tower of the church and served as a city clock. The tower clock of the cathedral Church is one of the oldest surviving clocks in Eastern Europe.

The monastery was abolished in 1773 after the prohibition of the Jesuit order. In 1788 the church became a parish one.

The church is a three-aisled domed basilica. There are sculptural images of the apostles Peter and Paul and St. Xavier on the first tier of the towers, in the arched niches.

The repairs of the church (roof covering, whitewashing) were carried out in the late 18th, mid and late 19th, early 20th centuries.

In the BSSR in the 1960s – 1980s, in accordance with the anti-religious policy of the Soviet government, services in the church were prohibited, but believers were allowed to look after the temple. Divine services in the church were resumed in 1988. In 1991, when the Hrodna diocese was founded, the church became a cathedral.

Publication date: 27.06.2017.

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