THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 69, 10 June 1846, Page 4

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The following appears in'the Times of November 19, a3 extracted from a new work, entitled "Eastern Europe and the --Emperor Nicholas," by the author of " Revelations of Russia." The descriptions hope grievously overcharged: In the city of Minsk, In 1837, there still existed a convent of humble nunß of the order of St. Bazilius. There time, like the »' Sisters of Charity,' was divided between their religious duties, •attendence on the sick, and the education of poor children. liena Miaceslas had been 30 years renowned for her charity and benevolence throughout the government of Minsk, as head of the Baziiian conyent, consisting of 34 nuns, in the city of that name. The substance of her narrative is to the following effect :— The Emparor Nicholas, having profited by his influences and privileges in nominating coriupt and ambitious toob to the bishoprick of the Baziiian communion (that is to say, ths Roman Catholics with Greek forms,) amongst these Semiasko, the bishop of the diocese in which the convent of these poor nuns was situated, hid apostatised to the Greek from the latin Church. Finding that the great mass of the clergy, and the whole of their congregation refused to follow the examples of their chiefs, Nicholas ordered forcible means to be resorted to, and set on foot a persecution, which caused the females of this religious association great alarm, and induced them to use the private influence of their friends in the Russian Capital, to by allowed to retire from their convent into the bosoms of their families. This boon the Emperor refused, refering them to their apostate bishop. Semiasko, after vainly using all his persuasive powers with this community, to induce them to pass over to the Russian Church, showed them alike the threats and promises he was empowered to make in the name of Nicholas, and the awful signature appended to a document which commanded him to adopt such measures as the interests of religion might require, to oblige all recusants to reform. Finding their determination unshakable, he left them three months to consider the matter; and then, detatcuing from his breast one of the numerous orders with which the Emparor had rewarded his apostacy, he attempted to pin it on the bosoms of the superior, to whom he held out a dazzling prospect of honours aod rewards. Irna Mieceslas, spurning this temptation, said tauntingly to the bishop, Keep it, keep it; it would not accord with the humble cross which marks my order, and with you it serves to hide a breast beneath which there beats the heart of an apostate. Three dajs after the insulting refusal of the superior to apostatize, Semiasko came with a detachment of soldiers to turn the sisters out of the convent. Such was the violence employed—such was the terror inspired by the account of universal persecution, that a sick nun of their number fell and expired upon the pavement of the chapel. The remainder were heavily ironed, hand and foot, and marched to Vitepsk, where they were placed in a Russian convent of " black sisters." These blask sisterhoods, which may, in some measure, be compared to our penitentiaries, are places of refuge for the widows of private soldiers, and receptacles for the most disorderly prostitutes. Here the 33 nuns of St. Basilius, from Minsk, met with 14 more of their order, transferred from another convent to this abode, where for two years they were kept to hard labour, chained in couples, and exposed to all the malignity of the depraved associates with whom these women of gentle birth were thus forcibly mingled. In 1839, all other efforts having failed to shake their resolution, they were transferred to another Russian convent of black sisters, in tha city of Polock. Here they met with ten more nonconformist nuns of the same order. The whole number of these women, 57, were now brought up twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, before a commission of the Russian authorities and clergy, and flogged before them, reoeiving 50 strokes a-piece. This was continued for months together, till- the wounds upon their backs was an open sore, and that pieces of the scabs, and. then of the raw flash, adhered to the instruments of torture. Three of their number died beneath this infliction. They were then fed on salt herrings,,and refused drink (a favourita Russian mode of torture), except on the condition of apostney. This punishment, which it appears they found the most difficult to bear, was superseded by a system of starvation. They were only fed once every other day, and drives to eat nettles and the fodder of the convent cattle. They were employed to dig out clay, and not understanding how to conduct an excavjtion, the earth fell in and buried five of their number. With incredible barbarity the Russian authorities not only refused to dig them out, but prevented the nuns from, attempting to estrioate their corapanious. They perished in thigselfrduggrave. The next labour in which the survivors were employed, was to aid the masons in constructing a jMlace for the'renegade bishop.

Some of the Polish gentry, whose spirit no terrors will quell, coming to look on,—one of their number addressed some words of "consolation to these poor women. Within 24 hours, not only this imprudent individual, but all those around him had disappeared. The falling of a wall in the midst of the nuns injured many, and killed eight of them outright. A ninth and tenth soon after perished. These ten bodies were carried off by the people, and hidden where all the efforts of the Russian authorities failed to discover them. About this period, several monks of St. Basilius were brought to the same convent. Their treatment is described as having been more barbarous than even that of the nuns. Four of these men> Zawecki, Komar, Zilewicz, and Buckzynski by namei all upwards of 70 years of age, were at last, in the full severity of winter, stripped and placed under a pump, where as the water was poured over them it gradually congeiled into a mas 3of ice, and froze them to death; another named the Abbe Laudanski, aged and infirm, while staggering beneath a load of firewood, was struck upon the head with such violence by a drunken deacon that his skull was fractured, and he died upon the spot. It happened that one of these surviving monks of St. Basilius succeeded in making his escape ; and Samiasko, irritated at this incident, resolved to conquer the obstinacy of the nuns, and publishing that they were about to read their incantation, caused them forcibly led by the soldiery to the por - tals of the Russian church. The curiosity which this announcement caused, led the whole population of the city of Polock to assemble ; notwithstanding the examples which had been m ide of those who had expressed their sympathy with the sufferers. The apostate bishop, in his episcopal garments, advanced towards the nuns, and bidding the soldiers leave his dear sisters at liberty, spoke to them with paternal kindness, and offering his hand to their superior, prepared to lead her into the church. Irene Mieceslas then seizing one of the hatchets used by the carpenters who had been working at the preparation of the church, called out to all her nuns to kneel, and addrassing Semiasko, told him—' After having been their shepherd, to become the executioner of those whom he had not already done to death, and to strike off their heads before the threshold of that temple, which their footsteps would never voluntarily cross.' So galling was the provocation of this rebuke to the Russim bishop, that unable to contain himself, he struck the superior on the face, and then flung the axe indignantly from him. It chanced in falling to wound one of the nuns in the foot; and in a moment after tha superior having put her, hand to her mouth, which was filled with blood, drew out one of her shattered teeth, and holding it up to him said, ' Take it, it will earn you some fresh order from the Emperor.' Such was the effect of this scene, that nothing could restrain the enthusiasm of the people; and as the nuns were led back by the soldiery, the crowd followed them singing with one accord Hallelujahs and Te Deums. I Such, notwithstanding all the repressive terrors of the Russian authorities, became the feelings of the population of the city of Polock* that it was found unsafe to continue the persecution of the nuns within its walls, and .they were ordered to be removed to the borough of Medzioly, in the province of Minsk. This public defeat of the Russian bishop and authorities was, however, revenged upon these poor women by an act of such diabolical malignity as only the most undeniable evidence can render credible. When the Russian soldiers, and the newly-made deacons had been rendered drunk with brandy, all these helpless nuns were turned out amongst them as incurably obstinate, to treat as they thought fit. Then commenced a scene worthy of pandemonium — he shrieks and prayers of the victims mingling with the oaths, blasphemies, and ribaldry of the crowd, to whose brutal lust they were abandoned. When the fury of these demons in human form had been exhausted, it was discovered: that two of these unfortunate females were quite dead. The skull of one bad been crushed, by the stamping on the temples of an iron-plated heel. The other was trampled into suoh a mass;of mud. and gore, that even its human character was scarcely recognizable. Eight others had oaa or several bones, or limbs broken, or their eyes torn out. Of the whole number, the superior, a woman of iron frame as well as indomitable resolution, fared the best; but she was not allowed to attend or console her muti. lated sisters except on the condition of apostacy. They were afterwards marched out of Polock by night on footj and chained two by two,—eyen those whose eyes had been torn out, and wfeose hideou g wounds were festering.' Those whose legs were broken or who were lamed,, were sent forward in cartsunder the care of Cossacks. A gentleman of: Polockj M. Walenkiowitch,. having ordered a funeral service to be.read<fo r . these viotims, was seized hv-tba middle of the night and sent to .Siberia,.his property being confiscated. A mon.astry of Domlniean monks, in another part of, the country,.having ventured to pray for them, was immediately dispersed;

On reaching Medzioly, the nuns were ngam un. ffl uredina convent of the Black Sisterhood am divided into-four parties. Here they were.put »to. sacks, and towed after boats i„ the water which was allowed to risa to their mouth and no ? e. Three more of their number perished in this manner, either of cold, or fear, or drowned by .«««j immersion. The inhabitants of Medzioly earned offtheir bodies in the night, as the earthly coil ot holy martyrs which men Would some day venerate and hold precious. After two more years' captivity of the 58 nun* (34 from Minsk, 14 from Vitepsk, and 10 from Polock) only 14 survived, and of these eight were either lame or blinded. The superior, Irena Miesceks, who had fared the best, had an open wound, from which she was obliged to extract with her fingers the carious bones and which afterwards becoming filled with worms, from want of dressing, caused her intense agony. At length some relaxation of vigilance having opened a prospect of escape, this corageous woman persuaded three of her companions to attempt it with her. In this enterprise these four women all succeeded, enfeebled by disease as they were, and without money or passports, at a distance of between 200 and 300 miles from the Austrian imd •Prussian frontiers. At the Commencement of the present year, profiting by the scene of riot and drunkennf ss to which the saints-days of the protopope of the convent had given occasion, they effected their escape. Leaping down a high wall into the snow, they alighted in safety, and immediately fell on their knees in thanksgiving. They then separated, to facilitate their flight. The superior, in the midst of all the severity of the Beason, was driven to hide for days together in the woods, without other food than berries, or anything to quench her thirst but the snow. Once, driven to extremity, she knocked at the door of a wealthy-looking house, and being received with veneration by its owner, was provided with money, provisions, and a correct map of her route. She crossed the frontier disguised as a shepherd; but even then was not in secuity, as ths cowardly Government of Prussia gives up even its own subjects to the Czar. It was not until she had reached Posen, in the midst of a Polish population, that she felt in secu rity ; and here she had unobtrusively withdrawn to a convent of the Sisters of Charity, but she was considered too precious, as a living testimony of the horrors daily perpetrated in that Golgotha which the frontier of Russia encircles, to be left in her retirement. With her scars, Wounds, and personal evidence, she has been wisely forwarded to Paris, where a deputation recently waited on her, to express their sympathy with her cruel treatment. In Paris she was joined by the sister Wawrzecka, and shortly afterwards learned that the other two had, in like manner, escaped the pursuit of the Russian authorities, and been Bafeiy forwarded by the zeal of the inhabitants to the Austrian frontier.