The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

56 The Marian Martyrs of Rosica the Fathers in Rosica. Suddenly, they heard the sound of the horses’ hooves in the courtyard and they saw the seven Sisters coming in. Mother Superior had to sign a document for the German officer that she had received the Sisters back whole and healthy. Some time later, two Sisters went to the village of Bigusovo to get information about the priests and the two missing Sisters. They were told that a cart driver saw a priest from Rosica standing among the young people taken for labor. In Indra, another cart driver allegedly saw two priests from Rosica being driven to the command post or else to the police. Later, the pas- tor from Indra also came to the command post to find out any news. He was told harshly: “Don’t you know that everybody was sent to Druja and that’s where they are.” And the railway station manager in Indra said that very few people were cross- ing the Russian border. One “priest” was probably shot and killed by the Estonians because he was not really a priest but a provocateur. Another one was taken away to Germany, and nothing is known about the third one. At the Latvian police post in Indra, they knew nothing about the priests. Later a policeman said that two of them were Poles and they had been shot and killed, but one was a Latvian. He was alive and now in Latvia. Still others were arguing that two priests with briefcases went to the German command post — or that just one priest was carrying a briefcase. Aweek later, the news arrived that the two other Sisters who had stayed in a remote outpost, as well as the priest of that parish, Fr. Laszewski, had been saved. When they understood what was going on around them, Father Laszewski gathered the people together and they headed toward the Latvian border in a procession, praying under a white banner. In this way, they managed to avoid the punitive expedition and to save their own lives. However, they were imprisoned in the jail in Dzwinsk. There the Dean from Aglona vouched for the priest and both Sisters. Therefore, their release may be assumed.