POLAND
"I learn this morning by our Very Rev. Father Provincial in France, that our dear Brother Bernadine died of apoplexy in our establishment at Lemberg, Poland on the ninth of September. He was yet a novice."
-- Sorin: Letters. p. 22, 1870.
-- "Father Gruza and Brother Theophilus left America at the beginning of September to take up a mission in Poland, the first work of the American Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross in that country.
"The will open a parish in L'uck, Poland, and will begin a missionary work that is peculiarly modern, since there are but very few Roman Catholics in the district, which is inhabited for the most part by Bohemians who belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. The religious situation of the locality is a definite result of the centuries during which Russia dominated Catholic Poland.
"It will be the work of the Holy Cross men here to win back slowly to the Church men and women, who, although separated from Rome have retained a simple and childlike faith.
"Father Gruza and Brother Theophilus were taken from Holy Trinity Parish and High School at Chicago for this new work, both having spent most of their lives there, Father Gruza as assistant pastor of the parish, and Brother Theophilus as teacher in the High School.
"Although Brother Theophilus had spent last year at St. Charles Home, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he had worked about 25 years in Chicago. There he had served as teacher, vice principal and principal at various times. He also organized various clubs there."
-- Association of St. Joseph. October, 1935.