Before the Revolution of 1917 religion in Russia was very real; the people, as a whole, were pious and God-loving, and a stranger would have been struck by the intense piety which existed in town and country alike. The vast solitudes of his native land have had their effect on the character of the Russian peasant, filling him with an extraordinary spirit of mysticism. Young and old seemed possessed by some strange power of detachment from external influences while engaged in prayer. They appear to be raised into a state of ecstasy, and I have often noticed quite young children, apparently lost to their surroundings, praying with a fervour which is astonishing to a Western mind.

Up to the year 1917 there was little or no religious freedom in Russia; then followed a few months of liberty, after which the Catholic Church was subjected to a persecution which could only have been originated by the spirit of darkness. Very few Catholics outside Russia know anything of the sufferings of their brothers and sisters in the faith. Perhaps here I may be allowed to quote from the introduction to Princess Almedigen’s book, The Catholic Church in Russia To-day : ‘ Go to Russia and see how Catholics live there, and then come back and tell me whether people whose beliefs are not founded on the rock of truth can stand one-tenth of what they endure.’

During those critical years, 1914 to 1920, I lived in Moscow, and there I found a little band of workers who, in God’s mercy, had been gathered together to carry on his work in this time of stress.