The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

134 The Marian Martyrs of Rosica an altar. Far away I could see a human figure. Father Anthony was standing, solitary. There was a faint cloud of smoke above his head. He was smoking to calm his nerves. He waved his hand in final farewell. The solitary sacrificial victim remained on his altar. It was still June. Each day we sang the Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. How different it was from the tune sung in Rosica. When I listened to it there, I was permeated by some indefinite emotion. There was something very sad in it, just as this land was sad. When I was listening to it, I could see the unending, limitless Russian spaces. When I listened to it, I could see the people behind barbed wire in Siberia and in Kazakhstan. I saw gray faces, people in rags, in cloth and bark shoes, hungry, looking for bread. It was a tune that grew on tears and blood like flowers in the swamps grow out of decom- posing life. It was full of hopelessness. It could be heard in the Litany to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as this melody was sung in Rosica. In the summer, Fr. George Kaszyra, who had been brought up around here, came to us from Lithuania. Even before the war, he had worked in the parish of Druja. He was of Belarussian origin, so he was going to help Fr. Leszczewicz while Fr. Czeczott returned to Druja. Then, in the fall of 1943, we had a new organist in the parish, Mr. Walter Bohatkiewicz, brother of the murdered Father Mieczyslaw. He was terribly tall, so tall that he had to lean down to talk to us. He was proably two meters tall. “They’ll need a large coffin for you,” someone told him indecently. Mr. Walter replied with his youthful smile. I believe he had come here about the same time Polish partisan activity began. It was Christmas again. The new organist taught the choir beautiful carols. What a joy when the organ played a beloved tune in the full church. The singing came from behind the main altar. That is where the singers were, in the old Bernardine cloister choir. Everyone experiences so many fond memories at