George Matulaitis Journal

February 28 At 5:30 in the morning, a girl brought me a note from Father Tumas asking me to bring him the sacraments, since he was seriously ill with brain fever. If I could not come, I should send Father Vaitkevi ius. After celebrating Mass for the Polish servant girls 1 at St. Casimir’s Chapel in the Cathedral at 6 o’clock, I went straight to the patient, carrying Our Lord. He made his confession very sincerely and devoutly. He did not want to receive Communion lying in bed and so, with the help of my server, knelt down. After I gave him Holy Communion, I talked to him for a while. It was evident that his imagination was overstimulated and his head ached; he was constantly holding his head with his hands and seemed very weak. I felt sorry for him. He is a talented writer, and his stories are very picturesque. 2 Aside from certain weaknesses, Tumas is a very decent and good priest, a man with a pure soul, an idealist who loves his country passionately and is devoted to it with his whole heart. Perhaps he has become too involved in nationalistic movements and secular concerns. Actually, he was ill with typhoid, not with brain fever. God grant that he may get well again. March 2 Last week Father Vaitkevi ius conducted a three-day retreat for the girls in the care of the Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene, and this week he gave a five-day retreat to the Sisters themselves. He told me about the situation there. It seems that chauvinism has reared its ugly head there as well. One day, right after Benediction, the girls began to sing “God save Poland,” 3 but they started too high and it petered out. I am very unhappy about the introduction of these nationalistic songs and other secular matters into church services here in Vilnius. Ne sacris misceantur profana (The secular should not be mixed in with the sacred.) 212 1 Members of the Society of St. Zita, a Catholic organization for working girls. It helped country girls who came to the cities to work, usually as servant girls in the houses of the rich. In 1912, the Vilnius Society split into separate branches for Polish and Lithuanian girls. 2 Journalism immersed him in current politics, while Matulaitis encouraged him to continue to develop his real talent, which was writing fiction. He had already published several works of fiction about the war and Lithuania’s rise to freedom. He was a great admirer of Matulaitis and wrote a series of articles about him that show genuine understanding and spiritual depth. 3 The famous Polish religious anthem which starts with the words “ Bo?e co> Polsk" ...”