Today is the anniversary of the massacre of thirteen peasant men and boys who died defending a little Greek Catholic church in what is now Poland. They gathered, with their families and neighbors, to prevent the Russian Imperial government from imposing an Orthodox priest into their parish. This took place when the Tsar destroyed the last Greek Catholic eparchy in the empire, Chelm, in 1873 – 1875. Deportations had already begun of clergy and lay leaders who were sent off in long columns on foot to Siberia.
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