BLACK VIRGIN'S JEWELS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143765, 13 April 1912, Page 3

BLACK VIRGIN'S JEWELS.

ROBBERY .AND HOMICIDE.

An ecclesiastical scandal, entailing fiatricide, robbery of the . jewels of the famous “Black-Virgin” of Czenstochau, Russian Poland, the elopement ot a monk with a notorious woman, and ijie organisation of a dissolute circle of monks in the Pauline monastery there, is exnccted to be revealed in court this month, when Father Damazy Maooch is placed on trial accused of theft and homicide. The case is attracting enormous interest throughout Poland. Its commencement dates back nearly three years. Then the discovery was macie one morning that the magnificent 3 e V elled offerings to the Black Virgin m the Czenstochau Roman Catholic Cathedral were missing. The virgin is formed out of ebony, and is one ot the most famous ecclesiastical statues m the world. It is stud "o have been made by Saint Luke, and is credited with many marvels ol muscle workuig. It is visited yearly by 200 JXW pilgrims, and gifts valued at £600,000 adorned the statue, having been .sent bv Popes. Emperors. Kings, and private individuals, through many centuries. Among the jewels tw, a ciwa given bv Pope Clement m 1(19, valued at £IO,OOO, ami a superb pearl embroidered robe of almost priceless: workmanthe disappearance of the jewels Fatlior Damazy Maecen of the Pauline Monastery also vanished* the pi lost took with him a beautiful woman of the town, Helena Ostronska, and the two lived together in Warsaw unsuspected for a year. 'They spent money lavishly, and were regarded as very wealthy people. , , Thou the priest apparently wanted to get rid. of his companion. He mduccc) her to inoirv his brother AVaclaw Maooch, a postman. After the marriage the woman told her husband that Damazy had robbed the statue of thc { Black Virgin.

DRUGGED AND CHOKED.

Damazv learned be had been betrayed, and believing his liberty was in danger he resolved to got rid of his brother. Ho persuaded him to drink a 'glass of drugged .wine while the two were alone together, and then struck him on the head with a hatchet. . The blow was not fatal; and the priest thereupon, with a ghastly mockery of piety,- administered absolution to his brother, and choked him to death. He sewed the bodv in a sofa and lured a waggon driver to cart it to the river Warthe and sink it. The waggoner was convinced a religious rite was being performed. , , . . Later' the priest was arrested m Austrian Polandi and taken back to Czenstochau. He has been awaiting trial there ever since. His demeanour throughout his arrest has been nonchalant. Ho lias confessed his crimes and made a further .'confession that his fellow monks jn Czonstochau had long been pilfering the jewels from the statue of the Black Virgin. Many of the gems he took with him, he said, turned’out to be glass, which had been substituted for the real jewels by previous robbers. The monks, 31aedeh said, were accustomed to appropriate the offerings of the V irgm to their own use. and disguised as laymen they frequently expended the proceeds outside the monastery on debauchery and dissolute living. A recent search of , the monastery resulting from Macocb’s confession has led to the discovery of many jewels originally belonging to the t irgin s statue, which had been .hidden by the inmates. Some of the monks have been imprisoned, and a complete change has been made in the administrative force of the monastery. Other jewels were discovered, valued at £IO,OOO, in the store of a jeweller at Lemberg. The discovery was accidental. Government secret service police wore searching the promises of a jeweller at Lublin, near Warsaw, for Nihilist correspondence. They found in the house a clue to the missing gems of the Virgin. This took them to Lemberg, and led to recovery of a part of Macoch’s booty. Besides Maccch, his woman companion is under arrest, while the police are holding an alleged accomplice, Father Kraczow.shi.

GUARD OF 2000 MEN. After the Macoch theft Pope Pins, in 1910, sent a new crown to the Virgin. valued at £13.000. It was placed on the statue with great ceremony, an archbishop, eight bishops, and a thousand priests from all parts of Poland and Germany being present. Half a million pilgrims assembled ■ during the proceedings, which took place in the Pauline Monastery, the statue being carried afterwards to the high altar of the cathedral wfth a guard of 9000 men. The Virgin is now eared for by a company of 'secular religious workers, the former guardianship of the Pauline Fathers having been removed by ecclesiastical decree.