The Irish standard., 1919-01-04

nacle -Ased Priest Loses Life in
Defending the Blessed Sacrament Of
Altar From Commission Of Inquiry
Gang Represented the Govern
ment of Russia.
This occurrence is probably just one
of the many manifestations of supreme
heroism characteristic of our days.
Attention has been focused upon
the great battlefields, where spectacu-
lar deeds of heroism evoked daily the
admiration of the world.
It came to pass in one of the OBJ
scure corners of Petrograd.
After usurpation of power in Russia
by the Bolshevists they directed their
destructive activities against the
Church, chiefly against the former
United States Church, but as we'll
against Christianity generally.
In one of the outlying streets of
Petrograd, in district inhabited
mainly by wage-earners, is the Catho-
lie Church of st. Stanislaus. The
congregation is Polish, with little
>sprinkling of Lithuanians. The church
had no endowments. 1t developed
from missionary chapel, and every
particle of it, beginning with the
rather large stone structure of the
edifice up to the last candlestick, had
exclusively wage-earners, to whom
each contribution, must have been q
sacrifice to their faith.
The priest, Pole, has been rector
of that church for nearly twenty-eight
years. had the privilege of know
ing him personally.
An order of the Government to
turn over to it all properties of his
church came in due time. He COM
piled with it as far as money was con-
cerned, having declared at the same
time that no other properties or valu-
ables were in possession of his church.
The Government did not believe and
ordered a commission of inquiry to
make an inspection of the church A
"Government's officer" appeared at
the head of small detachment of
Red Guards.
The priest showed to the commits
sion" the church; soon convinced it
that nothing of much value could be
got from a church which had been
erected and supported out of contri-
buttons of a laboring population.
Attracted by the sanctuary light the
commission required to see the taber-
ciborium.
The priest declined to comply and
declared he would not hand over for
inspection the ciborium which con-
tanned the Blessed Sacrament. He
testified on oath that the ciborium,
a contribution of the parish, was a
plain silver vessel of not high money
value.
After some hesitation the commits
sion appeared satisfied and went to
the adjoining sacristy to execute the
document showing that inspection of
the church had been duly made and
to issue to the priest the certificate
which was to show that he had COM
piled with the order of the admins
tration.
This finished, the officer in charge,
after a short consultation with his
men, suddenly required the priest to
hand over to them the chalice and
the ciborium. Though not of suffi-
cient value for confiscation for the
Government, they could find use for
silver vessels. The priest refused.
The gang which represented the
Government made rush for the
altar. But the old priest was quick
With few bounds he reached the
altar, and posting himself in front
of the tabernacle threw down from
the altar steps those of the gang who
were at the point of reaching out fol
the tabernacle.
Ill A shot rang through the church
The priest fell across the altar steps
Over his dead body the men, who
represented the Russian Govern
ment," robbed the church . of the
ciborium.