The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

107 Eyewitness Accounts ing thin cloth out of white wool and making banners and a canopy from it. So we set to work. Girls spun the wool in their houses, wove cloth, and made tassels. One of the Sisters who knew embroidery began to embroider. I made designs and drawings myself, and the Sister and the girls did the embroi- dery. Though there was no thread for this, some clever girls even got silk from stockings and dyed it various colors. And so the work progressed. When the girls saw that I could draw and embroider, they said: “Father, you can do anything. And those Jews were maligning the priests so much.” Finally, four ban- ners were ready, one completely embroidered. The canopy was so wonderful it could compete with the most beautiful ones. More and more children joined the White Group for Corpus Christi, while the Seminarian Tomaszewski recruited more and more altar boys. They even found a bell in some kolkhoz (a collective farm run by the State) and it was hung in a makeshift belfry. A vol- unteer, Czeciuk, rang the Angelus passionately. After a while, however, his zeal subsided. He would sit down on the beam during the ringing, and finally he would lie down altogether so that the ringing got weaker and weaker. On Corpus Christi, four beautiful altars were arranged in the cemetery next to the church. Quite a crowd congregated, com- ing in from neighboring parishes and even from Latvia since that was close to us. For the first time, the procession went out of the church with standards, banners, a canopy, girls in white throwing flowers, altar boys, and three priests. The bell was ringing joyously and happy folks marched and sang and sang. Many Orthodox peo- ple came. They stood off to the side and watched with awe. Later they asked: “When will there be a service like that again, so we can come?” The Orthodox were switching to the Catholic Church. They used to say: “We want the Polish faith!” I was explaining that there is no “Polish faith,” only Christ's faith to which everyone should belong! “So we want it!”