The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

8 The Marian Martyrs of Rosica single tribunal to consider so many cases because a separate process must be carried out for each candidate. The tribunal of Wloclawek asked the bishops of other dioceses for assistance. An auxiliary process for 20 candidates (including the Marians) was initiated by Cardinal J. Glemp on March 27, 1992 in the Archbishop’s Chapel in Warsaw. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception nominated two candidates for the process: Fr. Anthony Leszczewicz and Fr. George Kaszyra. They both died on February 17-18, 1943, in Rosica, in Byelorussia (Belarus). Both priests were associated with the religious center in Druja on the Dvina River. THE MARTYRDOM OF THE MARIANS After World War I, Druja was one of the northernmost small towns within the Republic of Poland. In Druja there was a Marian monastery established in 1923 by the Bishop of Vilnius, Blessed George Matulaitis-Matulewicz; the Marians operated a high school there. There was also a general house of the Congregation of Handmaids of Jesus in the Eucharist which was created in the same year, also by Bishop Matulaitis-Matulewicz. After the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the eastern front moved quickly eastward and new opportunities arose for the Druja center to do missionary work in the territory of Soviet Byelorussia (Belarus) where religion had been persecuted since 1917. At the request of the local pop- ulation and with the consent of the Archbishop of Vilnius, Bishop Romuald Jalbrzykowski, a total of 16 Sisters and five Marians set forth beyond the Dvina River: Fathers Felix Czeczott, George Kaszyra and Wladyslaw Laszewski, semi- narian Henry Tomaszewski and, heading the mission, Father Anthony Leszczewicz. They reopened closed churches and chapels, taught the catechism, and administered the Sacraments. The main center of the missionary work was set up in Rosica on the Dvina River, 30 kilometers northeast of Druja. The large local church was restored for services. The work of the priests and Sisters was bearing ample fruit.