[2][3] The Supraśl Orthodox Monastery was founded in 1498 by the voivode of Nowogródek and the Marshall of the Great Duchy of Lithuania Aleksander Chodkiewicz and the Archbishop (Archepiscope) of Smolensk and Archimandrite of Slutsk Joseph Soltan.Jeremias II Tranos, the Patriarch of Constantinople issued a special tomos sanctioning its foundation.In 1609, the Monastery was one of the first entities to accept the Union of Brest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Basilian Order took over its administration.At the end of the 17th century, a printing house was established and, over a period of slightly more than one hundred years, published 350 titles in Ruthenian, Polish, and Latin.In the aftermath of the havoc of World War I, the monks fled from the monastery for the interior of Russia, taking with them the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Supraśl.