Bishop Sipovich new file

13 2. Vilna The ancient city of Vilna (today Vilnius, capital of Lithuania) in the first half of the 20th century was a bone of contention between Poles and Lithuanians, each claiming it for their own. In fact the situation was more complex than that. In the 14- 18th centuries the city was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a multi- ethnic state, the two largest groups being Belarusians and Lithuanians. The official language was Belarusian. It was in Vilna that the first Belarusian printer Francis Skaryna produced in 1522 his famous prayer book for laymen, Malaia podorozhnaia knizhka. It was there that in 1588 the publishing House of the Mamonich brothers produced Statut Velikoho Kniazhstva Litovskoho , a code of civil and criminal law far in advance of the legal systems of other European countries. After a period of decline under Russians, in the early 20th century Vilna became the centre of the Belarusian National revival. Between the two world wars the city belonged to Poland, but, despite many difficulties, Belarusian national and cultural life flourished there. In particular there was a Belarusian High School, the only one in Western Belarus after the Polish authorities closed the Belarusian schools in other cities. Vilna University, founded in the 16th century, had many Belarusian students. The many and various Belarusian institutions included the National Committee, Scientific Society, Institute of Economics and Culture, the Francis Skaryna Printing Press, the famous choir of Ryhor Shyrma, a bookshop, the Ivan Lutskevich Museum, numerous Belarusian newspapers and periodicals which were confiscated or closed by the Polish authorities with boring regularity. In September 1935 five Druia clerics began their theological studies at Vilna University. They all lodged at their own house of studies, or College as it was called, which had been acquired by Druia the previous year. Father George Kashyra was appointed the superior of the house; he had finished his studies only a few months earlier and was ordained priest on 19 June 1935. The appointment of a new and inexperienced priest to such an important post shows the difficulties Druia was experiencing because of Harbin. Of the three Druia clerics who graduated in 1935, only Kashyra, who studied in Vilna, remained. The other two, Casimir Nailovich and Thomas Padziava, studied in Rome and were despatched to Harbin almost immediately after completion of their studies. The bulk of the money for the purchase of the house of studies in Vilna seems to have come from the sale of a diamond necklace which Princess Magdalena Radzivill had donated in 1917 for the purpose of establishing a Belarusian Greek- Catholic college in Rome. One of the priests entrusted with this task was Father Fabian Abrantovich. In 1924 he went to Petrograd as diplomatic courier, recovered the necklace which had been safely hidden there all that time, and brought it back with him to Poland. There he sold it for 15000 US dollars, a considerable sum at that time. The greater part of this sum he lent for five years to Bishop Zygmunt Lozinski who needed money for building a seminary in Pinsk, and with the rest he bought a house in Navahradak. In 1927 Abrantovich made a will bequeathing the whole sum and the house to the Marian Fathers in Druia, which he had joined the previous year. The fact that they were not his to give did not appear to worry unduly all those concerned. In the meantime the facts became known to other persons who laid claim to the necklace, and Abrantovich was forced to write to Princess Radzivill who at that time was living in Germany, explaining to her what had happened and asking whether he had done right in handing over the proceeds from the sale of the necklace to Druia. In her answer of 17 March 1927 Princess Radzivill said that the gift was intended