George Matulaitis Journal

February 27 I cannot remember what day it was that the seminary professor Father Reinys 1 and later Father Bieliauskas 2 came to ask me about what they should do. The Bolsheviks were looking for them to arrest them: should they stay or flee? “Do whatever you think best,” I told them. “If I were in your situation, I would not run away.” They decided to stay. The Bolsheviks have already arrested Father Reinys and taken him to prison. 3 I have heard that Mr. Liudas Gira 4 and Mrs. Bortkevi ius are also imprisoned. The Bolsheviks threatened to arrest some other prominent Lithuanians as well. Yesterday they allowed the priests to celebrate Mass in prison. We sent them the things they needed. A representative of the Workers’ Organization who had gone to Mi<sk in connection with Father Muckermann’s 5 case, also stopped by to see me. The trial would definitely be held in Mi<sk within a few days. The workers’ delegates should be there, and also perhaps some priest would consent to defend Father Muckermann. I decided that Father Cikoto 6 from Molodechno should go and that the workers should send their own delegates. In other respects, Father Muckermann does not need anything; the local Catholics are looking after him. Father Cikoto, a nationally conscious Belorussian who graduated from the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg, asked me to grant him leave from his parish to live and work in Mi<sk . The work of the Belorussian Catholics and of the whole national movement was centered there. He wanted to work among his own people. In addition, while living near the Mi<sk seminary, he wanted to reflect more deeply upon his own life. “Why not in Vilnius?” I asked him. He complained that Belorussians cannot stand it here. Their fellow priests look down on them, despise, and even persecute them. He had already suffered a great deal because, when His 205 1 Me islovas Reinys (1884-1953): a graduate of Vilnius Seminary and of the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg where he had been one of Matulaitis’s students. Ordained in 1907, he studied abroad and received a doctorate in philosphy, also studied psychology, apologetics et al. One of the best-educated and prominent members of the Lithuanian clergy, he was professor of philosophy at Vilnius Seminary from 1916 and played a leading role in various Catholic cultural and political organizations. 2 Pranciskus Bieliauskas: a curate at the Vilnius Cathedral since 1911 and a well-known Lithuanian activist. 3 Arrested February 22, Reinys was held in various prisons for five months, then released. 4 Lithuanian poet, active in Lithuanian social and political life. 5 Sentenced and imprisoned in Mi<sk for nine months, released by the efforts of the international Red Cross. Returned to Germany, edited the Catholic magazine Der Gral until forced to leave because of opposi- tion to Hitler. Died in Switzerland in 1946. 6 Andrei Cikoto (1891-1952): graduate of Vilnius Seminary and Theological Academy of St. Petersburg; ordained 1914. From 1918 to 1919 he was pastor at Molodechno; from 1919 to 1920 he taught dogmatic the- ology at the Seminary in Mi<sk .