Archbishop CieplakAuthor(s): Monica GardnerSource: The Slavonic Review, Vol. 4, No. 12 (Mar., 1926), pp. 704-705Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202009 .

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OBITUARY. ARCHBISHOP CIEPLAK.

ARCHBISHOP CIEPLAK, who survived condemnation to death by the Soviets and a subsequent year's incarceration in a Bolshevik prison, succumbed to pneumonia on I7 February in the United States, To the world in general he is known almost exclusively by the part that he played in the famous trial of the Catholic priesthood by the Bolsheviks in the spring of I923; but long before that event, with which his name will always be associated, he was a prominent figure in the Catholic Church in Russia.

He was born in I857 of a peasant family in the Kingdom of Poland. He studied for the priesthood in the Catholic seminary at Petersburg; but, instead of returning after his ordination to work, as he had hoped, in his own .country, he was kept in the seminary as Professor of Dogmatic Theology. During the many years that he filled this post he won the undying love and confidence of the young men under his guidance. In time he was called to a wider sphere of action, being appointed suffragan bishop of Mogilev, and, after Archbishop Ropp's banishment from Russia, Vicar Apostolic and Archbishop He was in authority over every Catholic parish in the whole of Russia and Siberia. He was the first Catholic prelate to make an official visitation of the scattered Catholic population of Siberia. He travelled thousands of versts in that vast land, on horseback or in a sledge, carrying spiritual consolation to isolated and abandoned exiles, giving those among them who were Poles the joy of hearing their own language and receiving news of their lost country. The Archbishop often spoke of this journey among the outcasts of his nation and of the profound impression their sufferings for the sake of their country had made upon him.

His qualities of mind and soul admirably fitted him for his position. Endowed with great simplicity of demeanour, drawn perhaps from his peasant origin, of which he never made any secret, he was the soul of gentleness and courtesy, a true father to those in distress. The suavity of his dealings with the varied nationalities under his spiritual jurisdiction, his tact in healing their differences, has been especially recorded. The iron firmness

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OBITUARY. 705

that was equally a part of his character is amply proved by his defence of the rights of the Church against the Soviet persecution, which finally brought himself and his fellow priests to theii trial. The details of that trial are too well known to be repeated here; but it will be remembered that Cieplak was the leader, acting with equal intrepidity and prudence, in the heroic resistance of the Catholic priesthood to the Soviet's demands. Eyewitnesses have related how, during that protracted struggle, when every nerve was strained to defend himself and those entrusted to him, the Archbishop, emerging from a prison cell in scrupulous nicety of person, wearing the soutane and purple sash of his office, maintained unruffled before the Bolshevik rabble who were his judges the dignity and com- posure of a prince of the Church. When the sentence of death was passed upon him, none saw his colour change; but he turned quietly as he left the hall, and gave the weeping Poles in the audience his last blessing.

His sentence was commuted to ten years' bimprisonment. After a year in prison, he was released through the intervention of Great Britain. A thrill of indignation ran through the civilised world when it became known that the freed prelate had been left by his Bolshevik escort penniless on a frontier railway station, dependent on the casual charity of any passer-by for the means of proceeding further. Through the chance recognition of a railway porter he was enabled to push on to Riga, where he went straight to a Franciscan monastery. With the extraordinary vitality of the sons of Poland-who, on their return from prison and Siberia, take up their life where they left it-the first act of Archbishop Cieplak when, after the long agony of his imprisonment followed by the fatigue and anxiety of his difficult journey, he reached this halting place, was to say Mass-fasting according to the laws of the Church-and preach a sermon to those who had hastened to welcome him. In Poland he was received with a public ovation; but he quickly passed on to Rome, where he stayed until December last. At their urgent request, he then went to America to visit the immense number of Polish emigrants and settlers in the States. While there, he was nominated to the Archiepiscopal See of Wilno, and his solemn installation was fixed for March 25. He died on the day that he was to have sailed for Poland. His is a name that will ever be remembered and venerated as that of a great priest and a gieat patriot.

MONICA GARDNER.

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