The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

36 The Marian Martyrs of Rosica spent more than two weeks, voluntarily doing physical work for his sustenance. However, he was not given much hope that he might be able to stay. In the chronicle of the Skorzec monastery, we read that on October 27, “Father Kaszyra with three Sisters and Br. Misiunas set out toward Lithuania, in an attempt to get closer to Druja.” He never made it that far and had to stop in Lithuania. Father. Kaszyra, after arriving in Lithuania, managed to reach the Marians and, in 1940, after the Bolsheviks had taken over, he stayed in the Marian monastery at Kalwaria, in Samogitia. Expecting imprisonment or deportation to Siberia, he copied the text of the “Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary” from the Missal, and learned it by heart so as to be able to say Holy Mass in prison or in exile. Fortunately, he was saved from the Bolsheviks, even though, like other Marians, he had to be hidden by good and benevolent people. After a year of German rule in Lithuania and Byelorussia (Belarus), Fr. Kaszyra appeared in Druja in June of 1942. Father Anthony Leszczewicz was also there at that time. He was spreading the Gospel among the Catholic population which for years had had no priests in the region north of the Dvina River, in Rosica, or the surrounding area, because it had all been Soviet territory before the war. Father Leszczewicz took Fr. Kaszyra with him to Rosica. They were both natives of this area. They spoke Polish, Belarussian, and Russian, so they could communicate with everyone. Father Leszczewicz was traveling around, establish- ing new mission sites, and reopening closed chapels. Father Kaszyra continued to work in Rosica. HIS MARTYRDOM On Tuesday, February 16, 1943, the pacification began. People were rounded up in the church. The priests went with them voluntarily. They heard confessions, gave Communion, baptized, took the Profession of the Catholic Faith from the Orthodox, counseled the distressed, calmed and prepared peo-