Gertruda Detzel – święta z sowieckich łagrów

Abstract

After the October Revolution, under communist rule in the USSR, religion was totally destroyed and forbidden. Priests were murdered or imprisoned. The Catholic Church ceased to exist. The faithful, however, remained. “Babushkas”, i.e. younger or older women were the only ones able to save faith in the “dark night of bolshevism” They gathered in the so called “Living Rosary” prayer groups. It was they who taught children to pray, baptised, buried the dead, visited the sick, brought families together for the ceremony of wedding. Their life, which was a mission and a testimony, ended quite often in martyrdom. Thus, in the seventy years of communism we were witnessing the “home priesthood of women” in the USSR. One of them was Gertrud Detzel. She served God and people in a special pastoral service, even at the time of imprisonment. Hers was a life of sainthood marked by converting thousands of people. She is one of the candidates for altars of the communist times from the territory of the former Soviet Union.