Your fruit will remain

225 19 th Century, the Order was losing members and monsteries in the Polish territo- ries following the partitions. 1 The territorial changes in Poland together with the ruthless political isola- tion of the occupants led to the creation of new administrative and ecclesiastical structures within the Marian Order, depending on the location of the monasteries. Thus, there emerged the Russian and Prussian Provinces in 1797. The Marians whose monasteries were under the Austrian occupation (till 1809), did not es- tablish a provincial structure, probably because the Order’s General House was already there (in Skórzec). Difficulties intensified even more, after the creation of the Kingdom of Poland, and particularly after the Insurrection against Russia in 1830. This contributed to a decrease in the number of members. In 1835, there were by that time, only 63 religious in seven monsteries. In like manner in 1860, 71 religious in eight houses were spoken of. Further, after the repression of the Insurrection of 1863, the following year saw a gradual confiscation of all of the religious institutions in the Kingdom of Poland under Czar Alexander II. The results were disastrous for the Marians: the majority of their houses were closed down, and consequently this led to the almost complete annihilation of the Order. Between 1864 – 66, seven Marian monasteries were suppressed, eleven members were exiled to Siberia, among them, Fr.Christopher Szwernicki (d.1884), the mis- sionary of Irkutsk and Siberia. The Churches which had previously belonging to the Marian Order were permitted to have only one priest each, to serve the com- munity, all other priests were removed by force to the last monastery in Mariam- pol in Lithuania. Here, subjected to a rigorous police control, living in prison-like, cramped quarters, it was not surprising that many Marians decided to leave the Mariampol Monastery, and to move to various dioceses to be able to continue their pastoral work there. The remaining Marians were gradually dying out; because it was not possible to accept novices, their numbers dramatically decreased. In 1865 there were 40 of them left, in 1897 only three, and in 1908 there was only one Marian with full canonical rights – Fr. Vincent Senkus, previously chosen as Superior General. To save the Order from extinction, it was necessary to transform it into a se- cret institute. This proposition was put forward in 1908 to Fr. Vincent Sękowski by a former student of the Marians in Mariampol, the Blessed George Matulaitis – Matulewicz, professor of the Catholic Academy in Petersburg. Having accepted his consent, Fr. Matulaitis - Matulewicz went to Rome in the summer 1909, with 1 There were 3 partitions of Poland between 1764 and 1795 which resulted in the end of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth.