On the first day of the new year, January 1st, a Cross Procession for Sobriety took place in Minsk, gathering around 120 participants. On this day, the Church commemorates the memory of the martyr Vunifatius, to whom prayers are offered for deliverance from the ailment of intemperance.

The procession commenced with a prayer service in front of the icon of the martyr Vunifatius in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice." The parishioners prayed for those struggling and for the strengthening of all those committed to the path of resisting the pernicious addiction.

"People firmly desiring to embark on the path of liberation from the heavy ailment of addiction and advocating for a sober and healthy lifestyle uttered words of sobriety vows in the presence of many brothers and sisters in faith, calling for God's help in affirming the path of acquiring the virtue of temperance," as reported on the website of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

Saint Vunifatius of Rome is venerated in the Orthodox, Catholic, and Armenian Churches. According to his hagiography, Vunifatius managed the estates of a noble Roman woman named Aglaia, with whom he was romantically involved. Aglaia, like Vunifatius, was a Christian and sent him to Asia Minor to redeem the relics of martyrs and bring them back to her. Vunifatius arrived in the Cilician city of Tarsus, where he witnessed the martyrdom of 20 Christians. Seeing their suffering, he openly confessed himself as a Christian, kissed the chains of the martyrs, and refused to sacrifice to pagan gods. Vunifatius was subjected to torture, and then his head was severed. Aglaia's slaves found and redeemed his remains. Aglaia buried his body with honor, built a church over the grave, and then withdrew to a monastery. In the 7th century, a temple in honor of Vunifatius of Rome and Alexis the Man of God (the Basilica of Sant'Alessio) was built on the Aventine Hill in Rome, where his relics were transferred and are preserved to this day.