Catholics of the East

What follows is a brief review of the history of Catholicism in Poland and Little Russia along with a handful of its post-medieval saints.

10th - 13th Centuries

From the very beginning of its conversion from paganism, the lands of Eastern Europe have been the violent battleground between East and West both theologically and imperially. Living in the shadow of the Byzantine Empire, and regularly ravaging its lands from the north, the barbarian Slavs from these regions were a crucial mission field for both Church and State during the 9th century. It was St's Cyril and Methodius who undertook this momentous task, and their efforts were finally crowned by the conversion of the Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev to Christianity... in the Byzantine church. This momentous event marks the moment in history when mankind was first clearly presented with the choice between two, antithetical hierarchies within the Christian world, and, as a result, Prince Vladimir's decision in favor of Byzantine Christianity would make an indelible mark not only on the history of Russia and Eastern Europe, but on the entire world.

At about the time Russia was converting to the church of "New Rome" under Grand Prince Vladimir, Poland was converting to the church of "Old Rome" under Prince Mieczyslaw I (962-92).

This prince, having married the Catholic Dabrowka, a daughter of the King of Bohemia, embraced Christianity, with all his subjects, in 966. He did this partly because he wished to protect himself against the Germans. Priests for the new Christian parishes were obtained from Bohemia and Germany. As early as 970 a Polish bishopric was established at Posen, under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Magdeburg. In 1000 the Emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II erected the metropolis of Gnesen for the bishoprics of Posen, Plotsk, Cracow, Lebus, Breslau, and Kolberg. The formation of this ecclesiastical hierarchy for Poland was effected by a clever political move on the part of Boleslaw the Great (992-1025), and had important results. For since that time the Church of Poland has ceased to be dependent on Germany, and has been under the protection and patronage of the Polish princes... Poland did not cease to be a German fief, but in ecclesiastical matters it became absolutely independent. Henceforth Boleslaw the Great assumed the supervision of the Polish church, and the Church, founded and organized with the co-operation of the rulers, was placed in the service of the State. Although Boleslaw exercised his right of supervision rather arbitrarily, he nevertheless always entertained a great respect for the clergy. The first bishops were appointed by the pope; canons regular were appointed to assist them.

(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Poland")

Similarly to Russia, Poland's conversion brought with it the influx of civilization, and the influence of the Church burgeoned rapidly. Land was cleared by the newly-arriving Benedictine monks, while churches, convents, and monasteries were raised throughout the land by the newly-converted Polish kings. Unfortunately, much of this progress was destroyed by the savage civil wars which followed the death of Boleslaw Chrobry (992-1025), but the national unity which the Church created during this terrific bloodshed and destruction ultimately served to strengthen Her position both in the hearts of the people, as well as in the politics of the State. This latter was crucial since, initially, the Church had been almost completely under the authority of the Polish Kings who could (among other things) appoint bishops at will. By the 13th century, however, all this had changed.

[The Church's] jurisdiction covered, not only the clergy, but also the inhabitants domiciled on the church lands and, in many matters, the whole Catholic community as such. The Church wielded the powerful weapons of interdict and excommunication. Church and clergy together formed an independent political division of the population, endowed with complete power of self-government... Thanks to their really enormous financial resources and their influence in the domain of morals, the clergy represented a power with which temporal rulers had to reckon. The highest legislative bodies of the Catholic Church in Poland, the synods, provided for the independence of the Church, and occupied themselves in strengthening its influence over the laity. Literature and all that pertained to education were wholly in the hands of the clergy

(ibid.)

During the disastrous invasion of the Tatars in the mid-late 13th century, the Polish people turned unanimously to the Church for comfort, strength, and guidance. The result was that Catholic piety become deeply entrenched among the people.

...during this period of incessant civil wars, Tatar invasions, famine, contagious diseases, conflagrations, and floods, the piety of the common people was remarkable. Never before or after was the number of hermits and pilgrims so large, never was the building of convents carried on so extensively. Princes, princesses, nobles, and knights entered the various orders; large sums of money were given for religious foundations. To this period belong the Polish saints whom the Church has recognized... the clergy, on account of their services in bringing about the unification of the kingdom, gained extraordinary popularity, all the more because they were the only educated element of the nation.

(Ibid.)

14th - 16th Centuries

With the increase of devotion came the increase of endowments and wealth, and these continued to flourish until ecclesiastical power reached its zenith in the late 14th century. One of the pivotal manifestations of this power was the exemption of the clergy from taxation. This marked a turning point both in the relations between the Church and State, as well as in the morality of the clergy.

bishops were concerned only about the attainment of new dignities and the collection of their revenues; they oppressed the labourers on church lands, keeping them at work even on Sundays and holy days; the priests were uneducated and in many cases were only half-grown youths; the clergy were venal; monks dressed in silken robes often shared in the carousals of the nobility. The nobles envied the flourishing estates of the clergy.

(Ibid.)

Thus, while the tax-exemption fueled the dissatisfaction of the nobility with the clergy, the moral decline gradually wasted the Church's hard-won respect among the people at large. Feeding on all this, the various creeds of the eager Protestants were hatched and began to spread their wings.

The aristocracy regarded the new doctrines as an advance upon the old, drove the Catholic priests from the villages, substituted Protestant preachers, and ordered their dependents to attend the Calvinistic or Hussite devotions. But the common people opposed this propaganda... Religious war first broke out in all its violence under Sigismund Augustus (1548-72)... In 1550 demands were made for the abolition of celibacy, celebration of Mass in the vernacular, and communion under both forms. Bishops were deprived of the right to sit in judgment on heresy. Monks were expelled; churches were seized. The confusion in the land grew steadily worse.

(Ibid.)

However, the agitating Reformers were constantly fragmenting between one another over their various doctrines, so the revival of Catholic morals and learning under the Papal Legate Lorenzo Campeggio and the Jesuits (introduced in 1564) was ultimately able to drive the Protestants back and reclaim Poland for the Catholic Church.

The heretics still continued to cause disturbances, but fortune deserted them. After the short reign of Henry of Valois (1574-75) Stephen Báthori succeeded to the throne (1576-86). The latter openly supported the Jesuits in their endeavours, and under his protection they founded a very large number of new schools... After his death the Swedish prince, Sigismund III, of the House of Vasa (1587-1632) was elected. This king was one of the most zealous champions of Catholicism. His main object was, besides completely checking the propaganda of the Reformation, to give Poland a stable form of government. In the very first years of his reign Catholicism gained considerably. At this time, also, the Jesuits came into Poland in larger numbers and very soon made their influence felt among the entire population. Their schools, founded at enormous expense of energy and capital, were soon more numerously attended than the schools of the heretics. Jesuit confessors and chaplains became indispensable in great families, with the result that the nobles gradually returned to Catholicism. Among the masses the Jesuits enjoyed great esteem as preachers and also because of their self-sacrifice in the time of the plague. Lastly, they pointed out to the nobility the exalted mission of Poland as a bulwark against the Turks and Muscovites.

(Ibid.)

Thus it was that a renewed Polish Catholicism emerged from overcoming the Protestant rebellion and began turning its attention to the conversion of those descendants of Grand Prince Vladimir who had entered under the shelter of the Byzantine Church so many centuries before.

After the influence of the heretics in Poland had been destroyed, the Society of Jesus resolved to reclaim from the Greek schism the millions of inhabitants of Little Russia. To these efforts of the Jesuits must be ascribed the important reunion of the Ruthenian bishops with Rome in 1596.

(Ibid.)

The "Ruthenians" (or "Little Russians") were a Slavic people living in the regions of Southern Russia and Northeastern Hungary. Their homeland was traditionally called "Little Russia" and it comprised most of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus. Along with the rest of Russia, these peoples had joined the Byzantine Church to become Eastern Orthodox; however, they had always formed a somewhat separate nationality from the rest of the Russian people, and under pressure from the Polish state (which had inherited parts of Little Russia under Casimir the Great and Louis I as well as Lithuania via the "Polish–Lithuanian Union" under Wladyslaw II Jagiello and Sigismund II), they were to become the first Roman Catholic proselytes among the Orthodox.

The separate legal tradition of the Ruthenian Church... was codified in the decision of the first properly Russian Church Council of the Hundred Chapters ('Stoglav') in 1448, followed by the formal separation of the Church of Rus' into separate Russian (Muscovite) and Ruthenian (Kievan) Metropoliae in 1453... [but] in the intervening years what is now Western and Central Ukraine came under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth... the clergy of the Ruthenian lands were ruled from distant Constantinople, and much of the population showed loyalty to Orthodoxy rather than the Catholic monarch. Persecution of the Orthodox population grew, and under pressure of Polish authorities the clergy of the Ruthenian Church agreed by the Union of Brest in 1595 to break from the Patriarch of Constantinopole and unite with the Catholic Church... [this] marked the beginning of the creation of separate Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches on the lands of Ukraine and Belarus.

(Wikipedia, "Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church")

Although the political pressure of the Polish government must certainly have been a decisive factor, it is important to remember that (much like the Polish church a few decades before) the decadence into which the Russian Church had fallen by this time was another serious cause for the Union of Brest.

After the annexation of Red Ruthenia, or the Ukraine, to Poland, in 1569 [the "Union of Lublin"], the Ruthenians, who had become politically subject to Poland, began to compare the lamentable condition of their Church with the development and vitality of Catholicism and to turn their eyes towards Rome. The Ruthenian clergy were steeped in immorality and ignorance; the bishops made no scruple of setting their flocks an evil example, living in open concubinage, and practising the most brazen simony. Russian documents of the sixteenth century bear witness to this melancholy decay of the Orthodox Church in the Polish provinces and to the impossibility of applying any remedy. Face to face with this spiritual ruin, the Catholic Church, reinvigorated by the accession of Jesuit missionaries, was showing her immense religious and moral superiority. Some loyal and honourable members of the Orthodox clergy and laity gradually became convinced that only a return to the Roman obedience could secure for their Church anything like sound conditions.

The Jesuits, who had been established at Vilna in 1569, at Yaroslaff in 1574, and successively at Polotsk, Grodno, and other cities of Southern Russia, soon set about to conciliate the friends of union among the Orthodox and to second their efforts. They began publishing works of religious controversy, emphasizing the spiritual, moral, and political advantages which must accrue to the so-called Orthodox Church from union with Rome. Eminent in this labour of preparing opinion for return to the Roman Church were Father Peter Skarga (1536-1612), one of the greatest apostles, and a literary and political genius, of Poland, and Father Benedict Herbest (1531-93). The former published, at Vilna, in 1577, his famous work on "The Unity of God's Church under One Only Pastor" (O jednosci kosciola bozego pod jednym pasterzem), and it filled the Orthodox with confusion; they burned numerous copies of it, so that a new edition had to be published in 1590. Father Herbest then published, also in Polish, his "Exposition of the Faith of the Roman Church, and History of the Greek Servitude" (Cracow, 1586). These two works helped greatly to dispel the doubts of the Orthodox friends of union and bring them still nearer to Rome; a result that was greatly furthered by the writings and labours of Antonius Possevinus.

(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Union of Brest")

The remarkable vitality of the Roman Church at this time was deeply bound-up not only with the Jesuits but also with the Order of St. Basil the Great.

Order of Saint Basil the Great

The order received approbation on August 20, 1631. Its monks, brothers, and priests work primarily with Ukrainian Catholics and are also present in other Greek-Catholic Churches in Central and Eastern Europe... The order is based upon the ascetic writings of Saint Basil the Great... Monastic life began to develop in Ukraine in the times of Saint Vladimir the Great (980-1015)... After the Mongol invasions in the 13th century the monks fled to western lands of Halych-Volhynia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

(Wikipedia, "Order of Saint Basil the Great")

Two among the greatest examples of Basilian sanctity during this period were Metropolitan Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky and St. Josaphat Kuntsevych.

Metropolitan Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky (1574–1637)

a Greek-Catholic Metropolitan bishop of Kyiv [capital of the Ukraine] from 1613 to 1637. He worked to build the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the first few decades after the Union of Brest of 1596; he also reformed the Basilian monks... Rutski was originally a Calvinist and converted to Eastern Catholicism the late 1590s... in 1613, Rutski was consecrated Metropolitan of Kiev. He was assisted by Josaphat Kuncevyc, with whom he worked beginning at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity [of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania]... In 1617, Metropolitan Rutski united a number of monasteries into the Congregation of the Holy Trinity of the Order of Saint Basil the Great... He died February 5, 1637

(Wikipedia, "Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky")

St. Josaphat Kuntsevych (1580 - 1623)

...was a monk and archeparch (archbishop) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church... His birth occurred while the Ruthenian Church was nominally unified. It had belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, but in 1596 come under the authority of the pope through the Union of Brest.... he applied himself to the study of the Church Slavonic language, and learned almost the entire horologion by heart, which from this period he began to read daily.

In 1604, in his early 20s, Kuntsevych entered the Monastery of the Trinity of the Basilian monks in Vilnius... there began the revival of Eastern Catholic monastic life among the Ruthenians (Belarusians and Ukrainians). In 1609, after private study under the Jesuit priest, the Blessed Peter Faber, Josaphat was ordained a priest by a Catholic bishop. He subsequently became the hegumen (prior) of several monasteries. On November 12, 1617, he was consecrated as the bishop of the Eparchy of Vitebsk

Kuntsevych faced a daunting task of bringing the local populace to accept the union with Rome. He faced stiff opposition from the monks, who feared the Latinization of the liturgy of the Church... firmly opposed the Polish Imperial Chancellor Sapieha, when he wished to make many concessions in favour of the Eastern Orthodox. Throughout all his strivings and all his occupations, he continued his religious devotion as a monk, and never abated his desire for self-mortification. Through all this he was successful in winning over a large portion of the people.

Kuntsevych's activity provoked a strong reaction. A rival hierarchy was set up by the Orthodox Church, with the monk Meletius Smotrytsky being appointed the Orthodox Archeparch of Polotsk. Smotrytsky publicly claimed that Josaphat was preparing a total Latinization of the Church and its rituals... The inhabitants of Mogilev revolted against him in October 1618 and chased him out of the city. Kuntsevych then sent a complaint to King Sigismund and the Orthodox revolt was brutally suppressed. All leaders of the revolt were executed, including Bohdan Sobol, the father of Spiridon Sobol, while all Orthodox churches were taken away and given to the Greek-Catholics.

Kuntsevych then became even more fiercely resisted by the Orthodox. During November 1623, despite warnings of unrest, he went to Vitebsk. There, on November 12th, the Orthodox sent a priest to his residence, who stood in the courtyard of his house, shouting insults at him. Archbishop Josaphat had the priest taken away and confined to his house. In response, the town bell was rung, which summoned a mob. They then attacked the archbishop's residence, in the course of which an axe-stroke and a bullet ended his life and his body was tossed into the river... Kuntsevych's body was later recovered and honored. It was eventually transported to Rome, where he was given the honor of burial within St. Peter's Basilica.

As a boy Kuntsevych was said to have shunned the usual games of childhood, prayed much, and lost no opportunity to assist at the Church services. Children especially regarded him with affection. As an apprentice, he devoted every leisure hour to prayer and study... Kuntsevych's favourite devotional exercise was the traditional Eastern monastic practice of making prostrations, in which the head touches the ground, while saying the Jesus Prayer: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' Never eating meat, he fasted much, wore a hair shirt and a chain around his waist. He slept on the bare floor, and chastised his body until the blood flowed. The Jesuits frequently urged him to set some bounds to his austerities.

From Kuntsevych's zealous study of the Slavonic-Byzantine liturgical books he drew many proofs of Catholic doctrine, using his knowledge in the composition of several original works — On the Baptism of St. Volodymyr; On the Falsification of the Slavic Books by the Enemies of the Metropolitan; On Monks and their Vows. Throughout his adult life, he was distinguished by his extraordinary zeal in performing the Church services and by extraordinary devotion during the Divine Liturgy. Not only in the church did he preach and hear confessions, but likewise in the fields, hospitals, prisons, and even on his personal journeys. This zeal, united with his kindness for the poor, won great numbers of Orthodox Ruthenians for the Catholic faith and Catholic unity. Among his converts were included many important personages such as Patriarch Ignatius, former Patriarch of Moscow, and Manuel Kantakouzenos, who belonged to the imperial family of the Byzantine Emperor Palaeologus.

After numerous miracles attributed to Kuntsevych were claimed and reported to Church officials, a commission was appointed by Pope Urban VIII in 1628 to start inquire for his possible canonization, for which they examined under oath 116 witnesses. Although five years had elapsed since Josaphat's death, his body was claimed to still be incorrupt. In 1637, a second commission investigated his life and, in 1643, twenty years after his death, Josaphat was beatified. He was canonized on June 29, 1867 by Pope Pius IX... The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church keeps his feast day on the first Sunday after November 12. (This Church uses the Julian Calendar, whose November 12 now corresponds to the Gregorian Calendar November 25.)

(Wikipedia, "Josaphat Kuntsevych")

17th - 18th Centuries

Unfortunately, the successor to Sigismund III, king Wladislaw IV (1632-48), began to sink under the combined weight of German invasion from the West, Swedish from the North, and the Tatar and Cossack incursions from the East. Finally, "In the autumn of 1655 the State, as such, ceased to exist. Lithuania and the Ukraine were under the power of the Czar; Poland had been conquered by the Swedes; Prussia was occupied by the Brandenburgers. No one dared offer any resistance... Overwhelmed by so many reverses, John Casimir [Wladislaw IV's successor] abdicated in 1668. He was succeeded by Michael Wisniowiecki, during whose reign anarchy steadily increased." (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Poland"). Nevertheless, just as the national spirit rallied to the shelter of the Catholic Church during the invasions of the 13th century, so also now.(

...when the Paulite monks of Czenstochau repelled an attack of 2000 Swedish troops, the spirit of the nobles and magnates revived. The clergy made this a religious war, the victory of Czenstochowa was ascribed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, whose gracious image was venerated in that convent; she was proclaimed "Queen of the Crown of Poland", and John Casimir, at Lemberg (1656), devoutly placed himself and the entire kingdom under her protection. In the event, the Swedes were soon routed. The wars almost simultaneously conducted against Lutheran Swedes, the schismatic Muscovites, and Mohammedan Tatars intimately associated Catholicism with patriotism in the minds of the Poles. "For Faith and Fatherland" became their watchword.

(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Poland")

Under the leadership of the heroic and pious knight John Sobieski and the protection of "Our Lady of Czefistochowa", Polish armies defeated Kara Mustafa's 200,000-man army at the siege of Vienna in 1683 with no more than 76,000 Polish soldiers, a truly epic victory for which all of Europe should be eternally grateful. Led by the newly-crowned King John, Poland then embarked on a long but victorious struggle with the Turkish menace that ultimately saved Europe from becoming another "Istanbul". Unfortunately however, such victories were not to be carried on by John's successor.

Under Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, Sobieski's immediate successor (1697-1733), Poland began to decline. Charles XII, King of Sweden, invaded Poland and deposed... Augustus II, and a new king, Stanislaus Leszczynski (1704-09), was elected by the nobility. Civil war followed, and the Swedes and Russians took advantage of it to plunder the country, pillaging churches and convents, and outraging the clergy. Augustus II resumed the throne under the protection of Russian troops, and Leszczynski fled to France.

(Ibid.)

Under Augustus II and then Augustus III of Saxony (1733-63), Russia and Prussia would, in the end, prove worse enemies to the Polish state and faith even than Turkish Tatars. With an eye towards seizing Polish lands, Russia fomented division among the Polish people and political parties which culminated in the defection of 80,000 Poles to the Empress Catherine II:

[the non-Catholic Poles] together with some of the aristocracy, who were dissatisfied with the abrogation of several aristocratic prerogatives, altogether 80,000 in number, placed themselves under the protection of Russia, with the express declaration that they regarded the Empress Catherine II as protectress of Poland, binding themselves to use their efforts towards securing equal rights for the dissidents, and not to change the Polish laws without the consent of Russia.

(Ibid.)

In the ensuing civil unrest, Russia, Prussia, and Austria seized their opportunity and occupied 3,800 square miles of the frontier provinces in Poland. Having placed itself in power, Russia immediately set about undoing the damage done by the Union of Brest among its Catholic subjects.

In the countries thus annexed each state began to pursue its own policies. In White Russia there were many Ruthenian Uniats: the Russian government at once took active measures to sever their union with Rome, and bring them into the schism. The parishes of the Uniats were suppressed, and their property confiscated. A systematic course of oppression compelled them to adopt the schism.

(Ibid.)

The effects of this persecution were highly favorable to the Russian Orthodox... according to some sources.

The partition of Poland and the incorporation of the whole of Belarus into Russia led, according to the Russian Orthodox Church, many Belarusians (1,553 priests, 2,603 parishes and 1,483,111 people) to unite, by March 1795, with the Russian Orthodox Church. Another source seems to contradict this, since it gives the number of parishes that came under Russian rule in 1772 only as "over 800", meaning that many priests and people remained in communion with Rome...

(Wikipedia, "Belarusian Greek Catholic Church")

Recognizing its danger, Poland galvanized to action resulting in "The Four Years Diet" and, in 1791, a new Constitution according to which, "the Catholic remained the dominant religion, but the dissidents were granted complete civil equality and the protection of the law," (Ibid.); unfortunately, it also instituted strict moral reforms, which lead to still further civil unrest and a second power-grab by the ever-watchful Russia and Prussia in 1793. In a final bid for independence, Poland rose in arms under the leadership of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, but the military power of the enemy was too great, and in 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria divided the remainder of Poland between them.

19th Century

Although many extradited Poles had hoped to see Napolean restore the kingdom of Poland, he did not; instead, he created the "Grand duchy of Warsaw" which, after his demise, was divided: "the westerly part, with Posen, fell to Prussia; Cracow, with the territory under its jurisdiction, became a free state, and the rest of the grand-duchy, with Warsaw, as the autonomous Kingdom of Poland, came under Russian dominion." (Catholic Enyclopedia, "Poland").

"Russian dominion" in this instance meant Czar Alexander I (1801 – 1825). He gave control of the Grand-Duchy to his brother Constantine who proceeded to rule the Polish under his dominion with a heavy hand.

His government of Poland was despotic in the extreme; he paid not the slightest regard to the Constitution, which had been confirmed by the king, but ruled as in a barbarian country. This despotism growing still worse after the death of Alexander I, when Nicholas I succeeded him upon the Russian throne, provoked, on 29 November, 1830, an insurrection in Congress Poland, which was put down, however, by the overwhelming military force of Russia (end of October, 1831).

(Ibid.)

The uprising in 1830 enabled Russia to finally undo the Union of Brest and overcome resistance to Russian Orthodoxy, whose ruling body (the Holy Synod, dating from 1721) was, "composed of representatives of the church hierarchy and the clergy appointed by the tsar, and was presided over by the tsar's representative, the ober-prokuror, whose rank from 1824 was equivalent to that of a minister," (Encyclopedia of Ukraine, "Holy Synod").

After the unsuccessful 1830-1831 November Uprising against Russian rule and the subsequent removal of the predominantly Roman Catholic local nobility from influence in Belarusian society, the three bishops of the Church, along with 21 priests, convoked in February 1839 a synod that was held in Polatsk on 25 March 1839. This officially brought 1,600,000 Christians and either 1,305 or some 2,500 priests to join the Russian Orthodox Church... some priests and faithful still refused to join. The Russian state assigned most of the property to the Orthodox Church in the 1840s, and some priests emigrated to Austrian Galicia, while others chose to practise in secret the now-forbidden religion...

(Wikipedia, "Belarusian Greek Catholic Church")

Thereupon the Czar Nicholas abolished the Diet and the Polish army, and assigned the government of Poland to Russia, whose administration was characterized by harsh persecution of the Catholic faith and the Polish nationality. While the Russian Government preserved at least the semblance of justice in Congress Poland, it did not deem it necessary to restrict itself in this respect in Lithuania and Little Russia. All the Polish schools were closed, and Russian schools founded in their stead. Even the clergy were subjected to manifold restraints: the church lands were confiscated, admittance to the seminaries for the training of priests was made more difficult, and communication with Rome forbidden... Russian became the official language; a large number of schools were closed. At the same time an attempt was made to introduce Russian settlers into Poland, but proved a complete failure. In Lithuania the persecution of the Uniats had indeed the desired effect, but it brought discredit upon the Russian Government: in 1839, at the instance of Bishop Siemiaszko, 1300 Uniat priests signed a document announcing their desertion to the schism.

(Catholic Enyclopedia, "Poland")

The Poles attempted to reclaim their freedom and their faith once again in 1848, but this only resulted in the further suppression of Catholicism and the Poles by the Russians.

Russian was the language heard in all the public offices, to fill which natives of Russia were introduced into the country in ever-increasing numbers. Under these adverse conditions Congress Poland steadily declined; in ten years (1846-56), the number of inhabitants was diminished by one million. The Government, during the long-continued state of war (not suspended until 1856), was of a despotic character.

(Ibid.)

As had happened to many times before, the Catholic clergy of Poland served as the rallying-point for the nation, and so the oppression of Imperial Russia did nothing to dampen the spirit of the Polish revolutionaries.

The clergy, however, constituted a force not to be neglected, for it amounted to 2218 priests, 1808 monks, and 521 nuns, in 191 convents, while the teachers and professors of every sort numbered 1800. The clergy exercised a vast influence over the people, and all the more so because the long struggle between the Government and the Catholic Church had given the clergy the character of an opposition party... It was the purpose of the younger Poles to awaken the national spirit by means of pageants in commemoration of national events and by great parades of the people to give utterance to their protests. These manifestations acquired a religious character from their association with practices of piety, an association permitted by the clergy, who were hostile to the Government...

(Ibid.)

Now, however, there was no John Sobieski to lead Poland to victory, and Imperial Russia crushed Catholics in Poland with little mercy.

Russian troops entered the churches and arrested, not without violence, several thousands of the participants. By the bishops' orders, the churches were closed. In January, 1863, an insurrection broke out which was doomed to pitiful failure. About 10,000 men were involved, scattered in very small bands throughout the whole country, and wretchedly armed. Opposed to them was an army of 30,000 regular troops with 108 field-pieces. In March, 1864, to keep the peasants from joining the insurrection, the Russian Government abolished serfdom, and the uprising collapsed in May of the same year.

The Government now exerted all its energy to blot out Polish nationality, especially in Lithuania and Little Russia: Russian became the official language in all schools and public offices; Poles were deprived of their employments, and all societies were suppressed. Confiscated lands were distributed among Russians, and every pretext was seized to expropriate the Poles. A decree was even issued forbidding the use of the Polish language in public places. Peculiarly energetic measures were taken against the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Obstacles raised by the Government to hinder vocations were so effective that in the seven years immediately following 1863 not more than ten priests were ordained in Lithuania.

Public devotions, processions, the erection of wayside crosses, and the repair of places of worship were forbidden; convents were suppressed; large numbers of the people forced to accept the schism. An attempt was even made, though unsuccessful, to introduce the use of Russian in some of the popular devotions. To remove all traces of Polish nationality in Lithuania and the Ukraine, the Polish place-names were changed to Russian; in the cities, inscriptions and notices in the Polish language were forbidden; the cabmen were obliged to wear Russian clothing and drive Great-Russian teams. In the Kingdom of Poland conditions were the same. Pupils were forbidden to speak even a single Polish word in school. In addition, Congress Poland was completely stripped of its administrative independence.

In 1865 diplomatic relations were interrupted between Russia and Pius IX, who was favourably disposed towards the Poles. The Uniat Church was attacked, and then the Government sought to organize a national Polish Church independent of Rome. The bishops were strictly forbidden to entertain relations of any kind with Rome. A college of canons of the most various dioceses was formed at St. Petersburg, to be the chief governing body of the Polish Church, in all Russia, but the bishops as well as the deans and chapters in Lithuania and Poland opposed this measure. Recourse was then had to violence and some of the high dignitaries of the Church were deported to Russia. The clergy, however, courageously held their ground and refused to yield.

(Ibid.)

There were doubtless many Catholic confessors and martyrs during this time, but one group that we know of are the Martyrs of Podlasie.

Podlasie is an area in modern eastern Poland that, in the 18th-century, was governed by the Russian Empire. Russian sovereigns sought to bring all Eastern-rite Catholics into the Orthodox Church. Catherine II suppressed the Greek Catholic church in Ukraine in 1784. Nicholas I did the same in Belarus and Lithuania in 1839. Alexander II did the same in the Byzantine-rite Eparchy of Chelm in 1874, and officially suppressed the Eparchy in 1875. The bishop and the priests who refused to join the Orthodox Church were deported to Siberia or imprisoned. The laity, left on their own, had to defend their Church, their liturgy, and their union with Rome.... On 24 January 1874 soldiers entered the village of Pratulin to transfer the parish to Orthodox control. Many of the faithful gathered to defend their parish and church. The soldiers tried to disperse the people, but failed. Their commander tried to bribe the parishioners to abandon Rome, but failed. He threaten them with assorted punishments, but this failed to move them. Deciding that a show of force was needed, the commander ordered his troops to fire on the unarmed, hymn-singing laymen. Thirteen of the faithful died, most married men with families, ordinary men with great faith... Their families were not allowed to honour them or participate in the funerals, and the authorities hoped they would be forgotten.

(Saints.SQPN.com, "Martyrs of Podlasie (1874)")

20th Century

The oppression of Catholics in Poland by Tsarist Russia continued throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, but finally, in 1905, Tsar Nicholas II published a decree granting freedom of religion to the Catholics in his dominions. The Catholics of Poland and Little Russia, therefore, enjoyed some brief years of relative peace and freedom before the incredible devastation of World War I struck.

When, in 1905, Tsar Nicholas II published a decree granting freedom of religion, as many as 230,000 Belarusians wanted union with Rome... they adopted the Latin Rite, to which most Belarusian Catholics now belong... After the First World War... some 30,000 descendants of those who, less than a century before, had joined the Russian Orthodox Church joined the Catholic Church, while keeping their Byzantine liturgy...

(Wikipedia, "Belarusian Greek Catholic Church")

This period is particularly distinguished by two Catholics: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Sister Josaphata Hordashevska.

Josaphata Hordashevska (1869 - 1919)

a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Religious Sister, was the first member of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate... At the age of 18, she considered consecrating her life to God in a contemplative monastery of the Basilian nuns, then the only Eastern-rite women's religious congregation... she was sent in June 1892 to the Polish Roman Catholic Felician Sisters... Hordashevska returned to Lviv two months later and, on 24 August, took the religious habit of the new Congregation... For the rest of her life, Mother Josaphata led the new Congregation... she was elected Vicaress General of the Congregation in absentia, with the delegates of the Chapter petitioning the Metropolitan that she be allowed to make her permanent vows. This request was granted, and Hordashevska did so the following day, 11 May 1909, and assumed the office to which she had been voted... In 1919, at the age of 49 and on the day she had predicted, she died amidst terrible suffering... Numerous miracles are ascribed due to her intercession after her death.

(Wikipedia, "Josaphata Hordashevska")

Andrey Sheptytsky (1865 - 1944)

the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 until his death in 1944. During his tenure, he led the Church through two world wars and seven political regimes: Austrian, Russian, Soviet, Polish, Soviet, General Government (Nazi), and again Soviet... According to the Church historian Jaroslav Pelikan, "Arguably, Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky was the most influential figure… in the entire history of the Ukrainian Church in the twentieth century" ...His family was from an aristocratic Ruthenian line, which in the 19th century had become polonized, Roman Catholic and French-speaking... One of his brothers, the Blessed Klymentiy Sheptytsky, M.S.U., became a Studite monk, while another Stanislaw Szeptycki became a General in the Polish army... he went to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army... [but ultimately] entered a Basilian monastery in Dobromyl, returning to his roots to serve what was regarded as the peasant Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church... he was consecrated as bishop in Lviv on 17 September 1899... [and] at the age of thirty-six, Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv and enthroned on January 17, 1901... After the outbreak of World War I, Metropolitan Sheptytsky was arrested by the Russians and imprisoned in various places in the Ukraine and Russia. He was released in March 1918 and returned to Lviv from Russia... During World War II he harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries... he also opposed the Second Polish Republic policy of forced conversion of Polish Ukrainians into Latin Rite Catholics... He died in 1944 and is buried in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv.

(Wikipedia, "Andrey Sheptytsky")

Bolshevik Russia came like an ancient Roman persecution in which the blood of the martyrs flowed freely as of old. There are doubtless a multitude of Catholic martyrs under the Soviets of which we will never hear, but the stories of a few which have come to us from are recounted below.

Josaphat Kotsylovsky (1876 - 1947)

a Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop and martyr... Kotsylovsky was born 3 March 1876... On 2 October 1911 he entered the Order of Saint Basil the Great... At the end of World War II, Communist Poland assisted the Soviet Union with the liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church... He died on 17 November 1947 in a prison camp near Kiev.

(Wikipedia, "Josaphat Kotsylovsky")

Leonid Feodorov (1879–1935)

Blessed Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov (1879–1935) was Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church, in addition to being a survivor of the GULAG.

Feodorov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 4, 1879 into a Russian Orthodox family.

he enrolled in the Orthodox Ecclesiastical Academy in order to study for the priesthood in the Russian Orthodox Church. After much soul-searching, he left the academy in the summer of 1902 in order to embrace Catholicism.

he began studying at the Jesuit seminary at Anagni

Leonid came to believe that it was his duty to remain faithful to the liturgy and customs of the Christian East.

Leonid was ordained a priest at Constantinople by Bishop Mikhail Mirov of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church on March 25, 1911. He spent the following years as a Studite hieromonk in Bosnia and Ukraine and was tonsured with monastic name 'Leontiy' on March 12, 1913.

On the eve of the First World War, he returned to Saint Petersburg whereupon he was immediately exiled to Tobolsk in Siberia as a potential threat to the Tsar's government which held Russian Orthodoxy as its state religion.

Open persecution of religion began in 1922. The clergy were forbidden to preach religion to anyone under eighteen years of age.

all Catholic parishes were forcibly closed by the State.

Feodorov was a man of the narod, of the ordinary Russian people for whom the Revolution had been fought. His presence put the lie to the usual description of Catholicism as 'the Polish religion.'

After serving the first three years of his sentence in Moscow's Butyrka prison, Exarch Leonid was transported to Solovki prison camp, located in a former island monastery in the White Sea.

In Solovki, Roman Catholic Mass was offered in a chapel which had been restored for the purpose with the permission of the guards. Exarch Leonid would offer the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Catholic Church every other Sunday. When the camp authorities cracked down on this in 1929, the Masses continued in secret.

On August 6, 1929, Exarch Leonid was released to the town of Pinega in the Arkhangelsk Oblast and put to work making charcoal. After continuing to teach the Catechism to young boys, he was transferred to the village of Poltava, Ukraine, where he completed his sentence in 1932. He chose to reside in Viatka, where, worn out by the rigours of his imprisonment, he died on March 7, 1935.

Pavol Peter Gojdic (1888 - 1960)

a Basilian monk and the bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Prešov martyred by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia... On April 28, 1950, the Communist state outlawed the Greek Catholic Church and Bishop Pavol was incarcerated... Abused in multiple prisons, he remained faithful, praying and saying Mass in secret. He was eventually given the offer to be released on the condition that he assume the position of the patriarch of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church. He rejected the offer as an infidelity to the Pope and the faithful. He continued to be imprisoned and to suffer mistreatment, dying in a prison hospital on his birthday in 1960.

Severian Baranyk (1889 - 1941)

a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr... born in Austrian Galicia (today Western Ukraine). He entered the Monastery of the Order of St Basil the Great in Krekhiv in 1904... He was ordained to the priesthood on 14 February 1915... In 1932 he was made the Prior of the Basilian monastery in Drohobych... On 26 June 1941, the NKVD arrested him. He was taken to Drohobych prison and never seen alive again. After the Soviets withdrew from the city his mutilated body was found in the prison with signs of torture, including cross shaped knife slashes across his chest.

Yakym Senkivskyi (1896 - 1941)

a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr... He studied theology in Lviv, and was ordained a priest on 4 December 1921... In 1923 he went to Krekhiv and became a novice in the Order of Saint Basil the Great... In 1939, he was appointed abbot of the monastery in Drohobych. On June 26, 1941, he was arrested by the Soviet NKVD, and on June 29, he was boiled in a cauldron in the Drohobych prison.