Vladivostok Parishioner Preserves Bishop's Relics

Miroslava Efimov
Archivist of the Catholic Parish of the Most Holy Mother of God
 

Translated by Janusz Zaleski

In July 2000, the Roman Catholic parish of the Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok was celebrating the 145th anniversary of the birth of Bishop Karol Sliwowski. There was a small exhibition of the bishop's photos and documents inside the cathedral. There were also his briefcase with the initials “K.S.,” an inkpot and writing utensils.

These items and the large marble crucifix in the cathedral were the only historical memorabilia in the possession of the parish.

Here is the story of how these items were preserved and found their way back to the parish. All unique memorabilia are safeguarded usually by some families and are passed with care from generation to generation. In this case, the guardian of the bishop's personal effects happened to be an old Vladivostok parishioner, Regina Stanko, who presently resides in Tomsk, South Central Siberia.

Regina Stanko.

When she learned from TV news about the reopening of the Roman Catholic parish in Vladivostok, she contacted the Reverend Pastor Myron Effing, sent Bishop Karol Sliwowski's personal effects and provided valuable facts and information about his last years.

She disclosed that the bishop was not sent to a concentration camp, but was exiled to the Vladivostok suburb of Sedanka under house arrest. There, in a small dwelling, he remained under the care of a young parishioner, sister Casimira Piotrowska, until his death in 1933 at the age of 86.

In his letter, Regina enclosed the picture of the bishop's grave. The date of death and the name were clearly visible on the tombstone.

Thus, the parish established a correspondence communication with Regina, through which the story of the Stanko family became known. Regina's father Stanislaw Stanko was a Pole living in the western Russian province of Witebsk. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, Stanko arrived in Vladivostok and worked in the construction of the local fortress. Later he was employed in the engineering office. When the Soviets established a new government in Vladivostok, Stanko worked as a railway engineer and lived with his family near the railroad Station “Kilometer 6.” There on a small lot, he had a house with a cellar, and a barn with one cow, one pig and some chickens. After the arrest of Reverend Jurkiewicz and after the exile of Bishop Sliwowski to Sedanka, Mrs. Stanko was sending daily her 10-year-old daughter Regina with milk for the bishop. The bishop lived in the house of Casimira Piotrowska. As long as his health permitted, the bishop enjoyed the visits of Stanislaw Stanko and the long conversations with him in the Polish language. Unfortunately, the bishop's health deteriorated quickly. On January 5, 1933, when Regina arrived as usual, she was greeted by Casimira Piotrowska with these words: “The milk for the bishop is no longer needed. He does not need anything anymore.”

Little Regina attended the bishop's funeral on January 6, 1933 at the Sedanka Cemetery. The coffin was made from zinc, because Casirnira Piotrowska intended to transfer the bishop' s remains to Poland. The bishop was dressed in white garments and a gold-colored biretta. He was wearing a bishop's ring on his finger and had an ornamental crosier in the coffin.

Three days later his grave was reopened and robbed. The ring and the crosier were gone with the other things. The remains of the bishop were placed in a simple wooden coffin and reburied in a different grave. Casimira tried to obtain permission to transport the bishop' s remains to Poland, but her request was categorically denied. During the summer of 1934, Regina and Casimira were visiting often the bishop's grave. It was then when the picture was taken. Soon after, Casirnira returned to Poland, distributing the bishop's belongings among the parishioners. The Stanko family received several things which were placed in a special wooden chest. The chest was always safeguarded, closed, and the children never knew the contents of it.

One night in August 1938, Stanislaw Stanko was arrested and the NKWD (later KGB) took the contents of the bishop's chest. The Stanko family, mother, son and daughter, were ordered to go within ten days to Siberia.

Mother Stanko took with her the bishop's chest with the remaining items: a briefcase initialed “K.S.,” the old inkpot and writing utensils. Regina was describing in her letters how oppressive was the life in Tomsk, Siberia. They were branded as the enemies of the people. The family had to live in the house of the father's distant relatives, who were unhappy to accommodate the persecuted newcomers.

Regina wrote in one of her letters: “The wife of my cousin was from a family of loyal Soviet revolutionaries and worked as a NKWD medic. Thus we were under constant vigilance at home. Within a year, my father was released from the hard labor camp, but was too ill to work or to help the family. He died shortly after his release. At the same time we received a letter from Reverend Jurkiewicz. He was arrested in December 1931 in Vladivostok and sentenced to ten years of hard labor in a gulag in Siberia. He obtained our address in Tomsk probably from one of the prisoners, who met my father in the labor camp. The Reverend was begging us for wool socks and bacon. My mother mailed him a package in spite of our poverty. We never heard from him again.”

Regina's brother was killed in 1940 during the Russo-Finnish War. Regina remained alone with her mother. Soon war broke out with Germany and lack of bread and very hard times followed. Nevertheless, the Stankos never attempted to exchange the bishop's items for food.

Regina attended a medical institute and joined the army as a physician. After a very eventful life, she brought up two daughters and lives now with her grandchildren. All of them are faithful Roman Catholics.

Regina resides in Tomsk, but she never forgot the Vladivostok friends and the deceased priests: Bishop Sliwowski and Reverend Jurkiewicz. In her correspondence with the Vladivostok parishioners, she indicated how to find all the bishop's confiscated items. Thus one of the parishioners, Jadwiga Zielinska, located a list of the bishop's personal effects seized in the house of the Stanko family: a tea set, a coffee jar, album, note-book, shotgun, binoculars, Polish language books, ornamental box and a ship model. The police authorities gave the following reply to the parish inquiry: “A review of the records of Stanislaw Stanko arrested by NKWD in 1938 did not produce proof that any items confiscated in his house were the property of the bishop or of the parish.”

This eliminated any possibility to recover the bishop's or the parish's memorabilia other than these which were saved by Regina Stanko.

The parish is very grateful to her for being a good guardian of the historical memorabilia. In spite of the great distance between Tomsk and Vladivostok, Regina remains a dear parishioner who once was baptized in the cathedral and received First Holy Communion in Vladivostok from Bishop Sliwowski. The hearts of the parishioners will always be with her repeating together the same prayer—“O Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, have mercy on us.”

Book belonging to Bishop Sliwowsky.

Cup belonging to Bishop Sliwowsky.