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With God in Russia: The Inspiring Classic Account of a Catholic Priest's Twenty-three Years in Soviet Prisons and Labor Camps
Republished for a new century and featuring an afterword by Father James Martin, SJ, the classic memoir of an American-born Jesuit priest imprisoned for fifteen years in a Soviet gulag during the height of the Cold War—a poignant and spiritually uplifting story of extraordinary faith and fortitude as indelible as Unbroken. Foreword by Daniel L. Flaherty.
While ministering in Eastern Europe during World War II, Polish-American priest Walter Ciszek, S.J., was arrested by the NKVD, the Russian secret police, shortly after the war ended. Accused of being an American spy and charged with "agitation with intent to subvert," he was held in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison for five years. The Catholic priest was then sentenced without trial to ten more years of hard labor and transported to Siberia, where he would become a prisoner within the forced labor camp system made famous in Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Prize—winning book The Gulag Archipelago.
In With God in Russia, Ciszek reflects on his daily life as a prisoner, the labor he endured while working in the mines and on construction gangs, his unwavering faith in God, and his firm devotion to his vows and vocation. Enduring brutal conditions, Ciszek risked his life to offer spiritual guidance to fellow prisoners who could easily have exposed him for their own gains. He chronicles these experiences with grace, humility, and candor, from his secret work leading mass and hearing confessions within the prison grounds, to his participation in a major gulag uprising, to his own "resurrection"—his eventual release in a prisoner exchange in October 1963 which astonished all who had feared he was dead.
Powerful and inspirational, With God in Russia captures the heroic patience, endurance, and religious conviction of a man whose life embodied the Christian ideals that sustained him.
While ministering in Eastern Europe during World War II, Polish-American priest Walter Ciszek, S.J., was arrested by the NKVD, the Russian secret police, shortly after the war ended. Accused of being an American spy and charged with "agitation with intent to subvert," he was held in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison for five years. The Catholic priest was then sentenced without trial to ten more years of hard labor and transported to Siberia, where he would become a prisoner within the forced labor camp system made famous in Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Prize—winning book The Gulag Archipelago.
In With God in Russia, Ciszek reflects on his daily life as a prisoner, the labor he endured while working in the mines and on construction gangs, his unwavering faith in God, and his firm devotion to his vows and vocation. Enduring brutal conditions, Ciszek risked his life to offer spiritual guidance to fellow prisoners who could easily have exposed him for their own gains. He chronicles these experiences with grace, humility, and candor, from his secret work leading mass and hearing confessions within the prison grounds, to his participation in a major gulag uprising, to his own "resurrection"—his eventual release in a prisoner exchange in October 1963 which astonished all who had feared he was dead.
Powerful and inspirational, With God in Russia captures the heroic patience, endurance, and religious conviction of a man whose life embodied the Christian ideals that sustained him.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1964
429 people are currently reading
3196 people want to read
About the author
Walter J. Ciszek
11 books102 followersWalter Joseph Ciszek, S.J. was a Polish-American Jesuit priest who conducted clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1963.
Fifteen of these years were spent in confinement and hard labor in the Gulag, plus five preceding them in Moscow's infamous Lubyanka prison. He was released and returned to the United States in 1963, after which he wrote two books, including the memoir With God in Russia , and served as a spiritual director.
Since 1990, Ciszek's life has been under consideration by the Roman Catholic Church for possible beatification or canonization. His current title is Servant of God.
Fifteen of these years were spent in confinement and hard labor in the Gulag, plus five preceding them in Moscow's infamous Lubyanka prison. He was released and returned to the United States in 1963, after which he wrote two books, including the memoir With God in Russia , and served as a spiritual director.
Since 1990, Ciszek's life has been under consideration by the Roman Catholic Church for possible beatification or canonization. His current title is Servant of God.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
June 5, 2007
This is Walter Ciszek's first book about his experience as a priest living in captivity in the Soviet Union. Whereas "He Leadeth Me" deals with the spiritual side of his experience, "With God in Russia" is more of a factual account of what happened, albeit one that is told in a dramatic, suspenseful style that makes it almost read like an adventure novel. A great read and very inspiring. Be sure to read "He Leadeth Me" to get the FULL story of this heroic Jesuit's life.
July 13, 2024
I love education. But I love being FREE of education every summer even more. And at the end of the year, there’s always a table with free books just lying around. If I can keep from hyperventilating myself into a coma, I always pick up a few castaways. Good thing I got a bigger car this spring. And this is the kind of book you’d find at a Jesuit school like mine.
Walter Ciszek was a Pennsylvania Jesuit priest captured by the Soviets during WWII and sent to a prison camp for fifteen years for trumped-up charge of espionage (spying for the Vatican). And when he got out, they refused to let him go home, hounding him everywhere he went for his “subversive” activity, which involved saying Mass and providing services to the faithful.
I liked hearing about Cisek’s early life: he was a “tough” and a gang member, causing trouble for his community and family. Then, one day, out of the blue, he decided to become a priest! He always had a hunkering for “the hardest thing,” so when he joined the Jesuits, he decided he’d want to work in Russia, where religion was strictly prohibited.
Once he’s arrested, get ready for a ton of detail. It can be a little exhaustive, as sometimes we get long physical descriptions of his prisons, and every step of the legendary Soviet bureaucratic processes he encounters. His religious work takes something of a pause here, but he celebrates whenever he can. What stuck with me the most about his fifteen years was the hunger: he talks a lot about never having enough to eat, and I can believe it. Later on, he adds tremendous danger and fatigue. Only occasionally does he get a respite. I had to be patient to see this connect with his spirituality.
Then, when released, something happens. He’s free, he’s spared torture and monotony and exhaustion, but he’s hounded for his ministry. He gets kicked out of each town by the KGB for continuing to meet the growing needs of his parishioners, who clamor for his help. I liked hearing that he wasn’t perfect: he shouts back at the officials trying to persecute him.
It was around that ¾ mark that he drops in the themes of “Divine Providence.” He’s been through a lot, but thanks God for protecting him, for keeping him safe. And he puts his fate in his creator’s hands. I liked this: it made the story of his eventual return to America so much sweeter.
Finally, James Martin SJ drops one of the best afterwords I’ve read in a long time. Written in his trademark, everyman style, he shares the questions and lessons we should take away from this story. Brilliant!
As I mentioned a while back, one of my goals this summer was to be more positive. I’d taken out a different book to help me, but this one got me started. It reminded me of the value of faith: to trust in a “creator,” or the universe, to protect me, to eventually set things right. His prayer for Russia at the very, very end of the book reminded me of the power of forgiveness. I’ve lately pondered what to do when I think I’ve been wronged, with things as simple as being cut off on the highway. What a saintly thing it is to assume only good from others, even when they act like jerks. What a positive thing it is to show mercy and forgiveness. I don’t think that’s exclusive to Catholics, and nor does this book make that point, either.
Religious or not, this is a book (albeit a long one) that can help anyone through strife.
Walter Ciszek was a Pennsylvania Jesuit priest captured by the Soviets during WWII and sent to a prison camp for fifteen years for trumped-up charge of espionage (spying for the Vatican). And when he got out, they refused to let him go home, hounding him everywhere he went for his “subversive” activity, which involved saying Mass and providing services to the faithful.
I liked hearing about Cisek’s early life: he was a “tough” and a gang member, causing trouble for his community and family. Then, one day, out of the blue, he decided to become a priest! He always had a hunkering for “the hardest thing,” so when he joined the Jesuits, he decided he’d want to work in Russia, where religion was strictly prohibited.
Once he’s arrested, get ready for a ton of detail. It can be a little exhaustive, as sometimes we get long physical descriptions of his prisons, and every step of the legendary Soviet bureaucratic processes he encounters. His religious work takes something of a pause here, but he celebrates whenever he can. What stuck with me the most about his fifteen years was the hunger: he talks a lot about never having enough to eat, and I can believe it. Later on, he adds tremendous danger and fatigue. Only occasionally does he get a respite. I had to be patient to see this connect with his spirituality.
Then, when released, something happens. He’s free, he’s spared torture and monotony and exhaustion, but he’s hounded for his ministry. He gets kicked out of each town by the KGB for continuing to meet the growing needs of his parishioners, who clamor for his help. I liked hearing that he wasn’t perfect: he shouts back at the officials trying to persecute him.
It was around that ¾ mark that he drops in the themes of “Divine Providence.” He’s been through a lot, but thanks God for protecting him, for keeping him safe. And he puts his fate in his creator’s hands. I liked this: it made the story of his eventual return to America so much sweeter.
Finally, James Martin SJ drops one of the best afterwords I’ve read in a long time. Written in his trademark, everyman style, he shares the questions and lessons we should take away from this story. Brilliant!
As I mentioned a while back, one of my goals this summer was to be more positive. I’d taken out a different book to help me, but this one got me started. It reminded me of the value of faith: to trust in a “creator,” or the universe, to protect me, to eventually set things right. His prayer for Russia at the very, very end of the book reminded me of the power of forgiveness. I’ve lately pondered what to do when I think I’ve been wronged, with things as simple as being cut off on the highway. What a saintly thing it is to assume only good from others, even when they act like jerks. What a positive thing it is to show mercy and forgiveness. I don’t think that’s exclusive to Catholics, and nor does this book make that point, either.
Religious or not, this is a book (albeit a long one) that can help anyone through strife.
March 23, 2012
True story. A hard-nosed Jesuit priest slipped behind soviet lines during WWII and got trapped there for 23 years. Through tortuous interrogations, 15 years of hard labor in Siberian labor camps, and plenty of laugh-or-else-you'd-cry hijinx, Walter Ciszek was convinced that he was made for this struggle. He was possibly the most disciplined and stubborn man of the 20th Century: blown up in coal mines, stuck in solitary for 5 years, nearly executed during a prison uprising, electrocuted while working construction, starved for decades on end. And yet, he was convinced that he needn't worry because God had his back. And seeing how he survived the camps and was returned home in a Cold War spy swap, you have to think that he might have had the cosmos figured out.
I remember an argument I got into in a class on Philosophy of Law -- is Communism just an economic system or is it a violation of human liberty/dignity/whatever? I am not exactly sure, even now. But in this book you really get to see the fascinating and absurd mechanics of life in the USSR, and wonder if that country's experience was just a load of misery and suffering, covered in a shellac of bureaucratic ego and paranoia.
Hey Benedict! Mister anti-woman, retro-fitted bossy pants! CANONIZE THIS GUY ALREADY! We promise not to spend too much time comparing how you both spent your free time during Hitler's rise to power.
I remember an argument I got into in a class on Philosophy of Law -- is Communism just an economic system or is it a violation of human liberty/dignity/whatever? I am not exactly sure, even now. But in this book you really get to see the fascinating and absurd mechanics of life in the USSR, and wonder if that country's experience was just a load of misery and suffering, covered in a shellac of bureaucratic ego and paranoia.
Hey Benedict! Mister anti-woman, retro-fitted bossy pants! CANONIZE THIS GUY ALREADY! We promise not to spend too much time comparing how you both spent your free time during Hitler's rise to power.
October 11, 2024
Fr. Walter tells his story in a matter-of-fact manner that, except for the grace of God and virtue of humility, is unfathomable given the intensity of his experiences. I am extremely impressed by the level of detail he is able to remember and the way he transports the reader to his cell, barrack, and beyond.
One of the most motivating aspects of this story was Fr. Walter’s psychological strength and the role that religion and a rule of life played in his stamina. It is abundantly clear that in these extraordinary circumstances, Fr. Walter’s reliance on the Lord, his faith, and his Jesuit background was life-saving. The best explanation is written by Fr. Walter himself: “religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it new meaning.”
It was beautiful to see the way God’s Providence is obvious throughout this story—with Fr. Walter’s cooperation, He created him as a man fit to survive and even thrive under such dire circumstances. Fr. Walter’s perseverance, and his parishioners’ faith under persecution is inspiring and makes me wonder just how far I’d be willing to go for my faith. It also caused me to re-examine how I view God’s will: “I deliberately didn’t pray that I would see my sister but only that I would do what was His will and what was for the best. In all my excitement and enthusiasm, I didn’t want to begin interfering now with His Providence after all these years of protection…”
I would love to read this book again—next time I will read it concurrently with “He Leadeth Me” so I can get the full background in addition to Fr. Walter’s spiritual anecdotes!
Prayer for the Canonization of Fr. Walter Ciszek: “If it be Your Will, may Fr. Walter Ciszek be recognized by the Church as a saintly model of strong faith in Your loving providence, his great love for You, and his kindness to all people so that we too may be better motivated to dedicate our lives to Your greater honor and glory.”
One of the most motivating aspects of this story was Fr. Walter’s psychological strength and the role that religion and a rule of life played in his stamina. It is abundantly clear that in these extraordinary circumstances, Fr. Walter’s reliance on the Lord, his faith, and his Jesuit background was life-saving. The best explanation is written by Fr. Walter himself: “religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it new meaning.”
It was beautiful to see the way God’s Providence is obvious throughout this story—with Fr. Walter’s cooperation, He created him as a man fit to survive and even thrive under such dire circumstances. Fr. Walter’s perseverance, and his parishioners’ faith under persecution is inspiring and makes me wonder just how far I’d be willing to go for my faith. It also caused me to re-examine how I view God’s will: “I deliberately didn’t pray that I would see my sister but only that I would do what was His will and what was for the best. In all my excitement and enthusiasm, I didn’t want to begin interfering now with His Providence after all these years of protection…”
I would love to read this book again—next time I will read it concurrently with “He Leadeth Me” so I can get the full background in addition to Fr. Walter’s spiritual anecdotes!
Prayer for the Canonization of Fr. Walter Ciszek: “If it be Your Will, may Fr. Walter Ciszek be recognized by the Church as a saintly model of strong faith in Your loving providence, his great love for You, and his kindness to all people so that we too may be better motivated to dedicate our lives to Your greater honor and glory.”
April 9, 2019
Finally finished!! The book was very good and especially towards the end, very inspirational. I just found the endless day to day extreme hardships repetitive. This sounds so very disrespectful of Fr. Ciszek, and I do not mean to be!
It’s really like like reading his daily journal from the time he starts out until his ordeal ends years and years later. I recommend reading it, but, if you are like me at all, it’s better read in “slices than chunks or whole”.
It’s really like like reading his daily journal from the time he starts out until his ordeal ends years and years later. I recommend reading it, but, if you are like me at all, it’s better read in “slices than chunks or whole”.
June 5, 2013
This is Father Ciszek's first book, the one which gives the factual account of his early life, decision to become a priest, seminary years, journey to Poland and behind the Iron Curtain where he lived and was eventually held captive for many years, presumed dead by his family and all who knew him in the US. It's a fascinating account, both humorous and inspiring in turns and yet Fr. Ciszek only wrote it because he was asked to. It wasn't the book he wanted to write. Later he went on to write He Leadeth Me which tells the spiritual aspect of his journey inside the Soviet Union and how God used him to do His Will. In fact this second book is the more inspiring of the two books, while this book, is written in a factual, straightforward, explanatory style. Both books complement each other, can be read in either order and are guaranteed to enliven and encourage you spiritually.
February 23, 2017
A man without faith could not have survived -- psychologically, if not physically -- the ordeals this man endured in communist Russia. From total isolation for years in prison, torture, constant interrogations, brutal work camps in Siberia, Walter Ciszek retained not only his sanity, but his humor, his kindness, and his ability to serve others as a priest. His faith was often his only sustenance through years of torment, and his relationship with God allowed him to endure even the worst treatment because, as he said, he knew he was never alone, and that God was watching over him. This gave him the ability to help those who were suffering even more than he was, and to minister to people who had even less than he -- people with no spiritual life, no means to access baptism, or the Bible, or faith.
An inspiring, challenging story that puts our own ordinary, wealthy, Western-world troubles in perspective. If he can say "God's will be done" in the midst of such trouble, how can I not?
An inspiring, challenging story that puts our own ordinary, wealthy, Western-world troubles in perspective. If he can say "God's will be done" in the midst of such trouble, how can I not?
July 18, 2017
I have now read both "He Leadeth Me" and this book. Unintentionally, I read them backwards, but I enjoyed both immensely. I always love a good Autobiography :) . My initial thoughts were "why did he write two separate books? He could of just combined both books into one." But after reading them both, I realized why he had written two books. The reliving of the actual story to share his experience with the rest of us must have been challenging in of itself.
His story is very captivating and thought provoking. I could feel his thoughts, worries and fears right along with him as he shared the hardest years of his life with us. He had an incredible amount of faith and perseverance. He had complete trust in Our Lord, Jesus Christ to protect and lead the way and what a wonderful example of saying "yes" and being totally accepting to God's will.
His story is very captivating and thought provoking. I could feel his thoughts, worries and fears right along with him as he shared the hardest years of his life with us. He had an incredible amount of faith and perseverance. He had complete trust in Our Lord, Jesus Christ to protect and lead the way and what a wonderful example of saying "yes" and being totally accepting to God's will.
March 18, 2023
Unreal.
January 19, 2021
This was an excellent book.
November 27, 2022
Disclaimer: I have not yet read He Leadeth Me, but I plan to
In this book, Fr. Walter Ciszek recounts his experiences during his time in Russia from 1939-1963. At first I thought it would read like a standard WW2 story, but it felt very different because Russians treated their prisoners & citizens differently than the Germans, and it also gave a glimpse into life in Russia during the Cold War period. I really enjoyed Fr. Ciszek's writing style because he recounted his experiences in an engaging way...I'm shocked at the level of detail he remembered.
Very powerful autobiographical work showing a man who firmly trusts in God despite almost unbelievable levels of suffering. Highly recommend!
In this book, Fr. Walter Ciszek recounts his experiences during his time in Russia from 1939-1963. At first I thought it would read like a standard WW2 story, but it felt very different because Russians treated their prisoners & citizens differently than the Germans, and it also gave a glimpse into life in Russia during the Cold War period. I really enjoyed Fr. Ciszek's writing style because he recounted his experiences in an engaging way...I'm shocked at the level of detail he remembered.
Very powerful autobiographical work showing a man who firmly trusts in God despite almost unbelievable levels of suffering. Highly recommend!
May 20, 2023
“No matter what my small sufferings are, I have a choice. I can either let them make me bitter, or I can meet them with the confidence that God will not abandon me.”
December 28, 2020
A priest willing to go wherever God leads him to serve who God asks him to serve. Unimaginable cruelty, starvation, and horror. Fr. Ciszek’s fortitude, perseverance, courage, and piety inspires me to become a better Catholic. This book tells the horrors of Communism while shining a light on how even the communists can’t stop the faith of the people. Fr. Walter Ciszek, pray for us!
January 27, 2024
Father Ciszek wrote the book, "With God In Russia" about his life from when he entered Russia as a young priest to evaluate it as a mission field in the spring of 1940, through his arrest for "subversive activities" in 1941, to his conviction for "espionage" in 1942. He experienced years of further interrogation before finally being shipped off to Siberia to serve his 15-year sentence of hard labor in 1946. He was released with restricted citizenship status in 1955, and while he tried to serve the parish in Norilsk as a priest, his ministry was suppressed and he was forced to move several times as he was kept under surveillance and unable to serve as a priest or to leave Russia until America intervened in 1963 and brought him home in exchange for a Russian agent.
I am glad I read his story, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as his second book, "He Leadeth Me" which I read in 2014. "With God In Russia" was good factual history about everything he went through, but in "He Leadeth Me" Father Ciszek writes about how his faith sustained him through all of those years and is a superior book that was more inspiring and is one that I will read again...perhaps very soon.
I wish I'd read this first so I could have enjoyed it more on it's own without comparing it to "He Leadeth Me" 3.5 stars, rounded up.
I am glad I read his story, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as his second book, "He Leadeth Me" which I read in 2014. "With God In Russia" was good factual history about everything he went through, but in "He Leadeth Me" Father Ciszek writes about how his faith sustained him through all of those years and is a superior book that was more inspiring and is one that I will read again...perhaps very soon.
I wish I'd read this first so I could have enjoyed it more on it's own without comparing it to "He Leadeth Me" 3.5 stars, rounded up.
June 5, 2020
There is no option but 5 stars for Father Ciszek and his story, his voice clear, his heart true in every part of his telling of his life in Russia.
My advancing years has yet to diminish my amazement at just what the human heart can hope, the body withstand, the mind overcome.
Yet, Father Ciszek reminds us with each page we turn, it is not the tragedy and cruelty we endure and survive, but the hope and salvation of our spirit and soul, in the face of such adversity.
With God in Russia, Father Ciszek teaches us God is with us in our darkest moments. He reminds us all that we are not alone and that all things are possible with God.
My advancing years has yet to diminish my amazement at just what the human heart can hope, the body withstand, the mind overcome.
Yet, Father Ciszek reminds us with each page we turn, it is not the tragedy and cruelty we endure and survive, but the hope and salvation of our spirit and soul, in the face of such adversity.
With God in Russia, Father Ciszek teaches us God is with us in our darkest moments. He reminds us all that we are not alone and that all things are possible with God.
May 5, 2025
Fascinating read and very inspiring story! Fr. Ciszek recounts in remarkable detail his 23 years in the Soviet Union, mostly in prison or other forms of oppression. If you are looking for a play-by-play account of his life, this is the book to read. However, if you (like I) are looking for a spiritual reflection upon these events, you are better to read HE LEADETH ME, Fr. Ciszek's follow-up volume, which does more than recount each event and instead offers reflections and lessons from his remarkable life experiences. WITH GOD IN RUSSIA is best to read first. Its narrative reads like a novel. HE LEADEST ME is best to read second. It reads like spiritual reading. Both are incredible books, but it is helpful to know what they are like before reading them.
December 19, 2024
Very much a page-turner. It was like reading a Michael O'Brien book, but it was an autobiography! The elements of God's good Providence and of His answering our prayers in ways beyond our imagining...these elements were quite evident as themes running through the book, through Fr Ciszek's life. That we could all see our own lives so...
July 13, 2023
Цікава книга, епічна історія. Низка цікавих свідчень щодо УГКЦ. Звісно, що це також класичний приклад зачарування "загадковою російською душею", яким було просякнуте середовище Руссікума в ті часи. Багато чого він так і не зрозумів. Не зважаючи на те, що провів 15 років в найсуворіших тюрмах і таборах.
May 15, 2024
This description of Father Ciszek's time in the Russian prison system in from 1939 through his return to America in 1963 seemed so matter of fact. The hunger, the work detail, the interrogations could destroy a man without faith. Looking forward to reading " He Leadeth Me", the spiritual reflections of Father Ciszek from his time in Russia.
September 20, 2025
The number one thing I took away from this book is you don't understand how important food is in your life.
40 years later this guy remembers every extra gram of food he got.
We are truly blessed.
40 years later this guy remembers every extra gram of food he got.
We are truly blessed.
May 21, 2024
What an account. Page turner.
August 10, 2025
3.5
Horrifying, harrowing and heroic. One man’s experience of the prison camps in Russia and how he kept his sanity and his faith. What is most profound is the isolation he felt and experienced. Most of us go through life with support from friends and family. Cizek was on his own, or maybe not quite; hence the title of the book…
Horrifying, harrowing and heroic. One man’s experience of the prison camps in Russia and how he kept his sanity and his faith. What is most profound is the isolation he felt and experienced. Most of us go through life with support from friends and family. Cizek was on his own, or maybe not quite; hence the title of the book…
December 5, 2025
Canonize this man immediately (I say with 0 papal authority)
May 23, 2018
Incredible memoir of incredible man. Good overview of Soviet Union, gulags, Siberia... it's amazing what people can endure. Would have liked more spiritual account here, but that's in his other book.
September 23, 2023
Great biographical story. Father Ciszek lived through a remarkably difficult time in the Soviet gulag system. Throughout all of the trails, he never lost his faith. The title of the book is a great summary of his profound experience, “Alone with God in Russia.” The writing was engaging and the story was very dramatic and, ultimately, full of hope.
August 7, 2020
A beautiful masterpiece, narrating the dedication of a man of God under the most extreme conditions-and without losing it too!
I've made a resolution after this book-to never take anything for granted. Totally.
I've made a resolution after this book-to never take anything for granted. Totally.
June 30, 2023
Very inspiring account of great bravery and faith amidst of the horrible mistreatments of the Soviet gulag. Displays the great yearning for faith and religious practice of the people even during the height of the Soviet union.
July 1, 2020
“I felt I was destined to spend my life doing what I could for my ‘flock’ here in Russia who, as Our Lord had said, were lying like sheep without a shepherd. Let the KGB do what they ‘must.’ The Lord was my shepherd. He had proven that.”
One day in 1929, while he was in seminary, Fr. Walter Ciszek heard someone read a letter from Pope Pius XI. In the letter, the Holy Father spoke about Soviet Russia, where religious persecution was rampant. There, all the Catholic bishops had been arrested and sent to concentration camps. There, hundreds of parishes lacked a pastor. It was illegal to teach religion to children. Seminaries were closed. The Holy Father expressed the urgent need for well-trained and courageous priests who would go into Russia, to this lost flock.
Even as Father Weber read the letter something within me stirred. I knew I had come to the end of a long search. I was convinced that God had at last sought me out and was telling me the answer to my long desire and the reason for all my struggles.
Yet, while his calling was clear, the way was not. Catholic priests were not permitted into Russian in 1937. So first Fr. Ciszek was sent to Albertin, Poland. He could not enter Russia, but very soon the Russians came to him: the Russian soldiers occupied Poland.
At this time Russia was hiring workers from occupied territories to work in the Urals, a mountain range in western Russia. Fr. Ciszek, along with another priest, proposed volunteering to work in the area. The Archbishop cautiously approved of the plan, directing Fr. Ciszek to return in a year to report whether the conditions were favorable for ministering to the Russian people there.
On the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19), the train carrying Fr. Ciszek, along with many other volunteer workers, passed into Russia.
"There was no way of knowing what the future would bring, but we were doing at last what we had dreamt so many years of doing. It didn’t matter if no one else in that boxcar knew we were priests. We knew it. Crossing the border gave me a strange sense of exhilaration, and yet, of loneliness, of a beginning and an end to the life we had known."
At the Urals, Fr. Ciszek worked as an unskilled laborer hauling logs from the river and stacking them over six feet high. It was demanding labor, with no breaks, and he was paid based on how many logs he stacked. He later worked as a truck driver, which carried its own hazards in a place where temperatures at times dropped forty degrees below zero. One night the truck stalled and wouldn’t start. He spent forty-eight hours sitting in the truck, his cheeks literally freezing, until someone came to help him.
Fr. Ciszek found ways to continue his ministry as a priest. He memorized the prayers of the Mass by heart, in case someone took his Mass kit away. He would offer Mass in the forest after work, using a stump as an altar. He befriended the children and teens at the camp, asking what they had learned about God in school (nothing) and answering their questions. The teens especially were curious about religion. Mostly though, he turned his demanding work into prayer.
Then, unexpectedly, in June 1941 at 3:00 AM secret police surrounded the barracks where he was sleeping. They found two bottles of Mass wine, a half-pound bag of tooth powder, and a sheet of paper with letters on it, which Fr. Ciszek had been using to teach a little boy the alphabet. The secret police claimed that the bottles contained nitroglycerin and the powder was gun powder: materials for making bombs. The paper with the letters was a secret code. In short, Fr. Ciszek must be a German spy.
For two months Fr. Ciszek was imprisoned in a 30 by 30 foot cell containing more than 100 people.
“Of course, there was no such thing as privacy, even to perform the natural processes. Each evening we were led in groups to the prison toilet, but at all other times we had to use a covered barrel in the cell. The odor in the room was foul. Every afternoon, too, we were taken out in groups to walk in the courtyard for perhaps twenty minutes of exercise. Otherwise, we were confined like sardines, with not even enough room to stretch out and sleep. The only measure of privacy was to withdraw within yourself, as many did, or else to engage in conversation with one or two people nearest you and try to ignore what was happening in the rest of the room.”
Sometimes people were called out for interrogation. Some never returned; some came back with bruises. Fr. Ciszek himself was interrogated, sometimes for a whole day. They knew far more about him than he ever expected. They always asked the same questions. Who were his contacts? What kind of information had he sent to the Germans? No matter how often he told his story, they refused to believe him. He was hit, beaten with clubs, drugged, and put into solitary confinement: a cell of complete darkness.
Fr. Ciszek spent four years at the famous prison of Lubianka. For almost a year he lived in a room alone, speaking to no one. He did his best to order his day around prayer. He would scrub his wood floor twice each day for exercise. He read voraciously, including many classic Russian novels. Outside he could hear the sound of German planes dropping bombs onto Moscow.
Still, the interrogations continued.
“The weary round of questioning continued; since there had never actually been any espionage or sabotage plot, they couldn’t prove anything, but they kept doggedly insisting. Tired of the subject as I was, I was equally dogged in insisting that my only motives for entering Russia, or going anywhere in Russia--no matter where--had been purely spiritual ones, like those of priests anywhere.”
Fr. Ciszek and the communists spoke different languages and by that, I do not mean English and Russia. The communists simply could not understand the spiritual realm. It probably would have been easier for Fr. Ciszek to make up a story and go along with their insistence that he was a spy. But he spoke the truth and held fast to the truth of his spiritual motivations. Our Lord said that the truth will set you free. It would be many years before Fr. Ciszek would be physically free, but his soul was free .. and he continued to depend on God during those long years in prison, learning to abandon himself to Divine Providence.
"Lubianka was a hard school, but a good one. I learned there the lesson which would keep me going in the years to come: religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it a new meaning. In Lubianka I grew firmer in my conviction that whatever happened in my life was nothing else than a reflection of God’s will for me. And He would protect me."
After being found guilty of espionage, Fr. Ciszek was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in Siberia. There he worked as a coal loader, miner, and construction worker. Many times he almost died: he was electrocuted and once the ceiling in one of the shafts of the mine almost fell on top of him. But there were other dangers. Many of the other prisoners were common thieves and fights would break out within camp. In 1952 there was a revolt in the work camps and the Russian troops had to violently restore order.
Here Fr. Ciszek quietly ministered to his hidden flock. He would offer Mass in another priest’s barrack. He would go on walks outside and seemingly “run into” a group of two or three men … and quietly distribute Holy Communion to them. He heard confessions and even offered retreats.
In April 1955 Fr. Ciszek was informed that he had served his sentence. He was now a free man … but not really. The KGB informed him where he would live and even how much money he could earn. He also had to report to the police station and tell them his address.
As soon as he was settled, Fr. Ciszek quietly resumed his priestly duties: baptizing, offering Mass, witnessing marriages. His parish grew as more people came, seeking the sacraments. They were starving for them. And yet, just when his ministry was really thriving, the KGB told Fr. Ciszek he had to leave that city and move somewhere else, since he was “agitating the people.” So he left, went to a new city, and began his spiritual work once again.
Eventually, in 1963, Fr. Ciszek was allowed to return to the United States, in exchange for a Russian spy. As the plane took off leaving Russia, he made the Sign of the Cross over the country where he had been wrongly accused, sentenced without a trial, beaten, starved, worked mercilessly, frozen, and imprisoned. But it was not a curse he offered for all that suffering and pain; he offered a blessing. He was called to Russia to minister to the Russian people and that he did--in prison, in Siberia, in the cities controlled by the communists. They were his flock and, trusting in Divine Providence, he was their shepherd.
One day in 1929, while he was in seminary, Fr. Walter Ciszek heard someone read a letter from Pope Pius XI. In the letter, the Holy Father spoke about Soviet Russia, where religious persecution was rampant. There, all the Catholic bishops had been arrested and sent to concentration camps. There, hundreds of parishes lacked a pastor. It was illegal to teach religion to children. Seminaries were closed. The Holy Father expressed the urgent need for well-trained and courageous priests who would go into Russia, to this lost flock.
Even as Father Weber read the letter something within me stirred. I knew I had come to the end of a long search. I was convinced that God had at last sought me out and was telling me the answer to my long desire and the reason for all my struggles.
Yet, while his calling was clear, the way was not. Catholic priests were not permitted into Russian in 1937. So first Fr. Ciszek was sent to Albertin, Poland. He could not enter Russia, but very soon the Russians came to him: the Russian soldiers occupied Poland.
At this time Russia was hiring workers from occupied territories to work in the Urals, a mountain range in western Russia. Fr. Ciszek, along with another priest, proposed volunteering to work in the area. The Archbishop cautiously approved of the plan, directing Fr. Ciszek to return in a year to report whether the conditions were favorable for ministering to the Russian people there.
On the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19), the train carrying Fr. Ciszek, along with many other volunteer workers, passed into Russia.
"There was no way of knowing what the future would bring, but we were doing at last what we had dreamt so many years of doing. It didn’t matter if no one else in that boxcar knew we were priests. We knew it. Crossing the border gave me a strange sense of exhilaration, and yet, of loneliness, of a beginning and an end to the life we had known."
At the Urals, Fr. Ciszek worked as an unskilled laborer hauling logs from the river and stacking them over six feet high. It was demanding labor, with no breaks, and he was paid based on how many logs he stacked. He later worked as a truck driver, which carried its own hazards in a place where temperatures at times dropped forty degrees below zero. One night the truck stalled and wouldn’t start. He spent forty-eight hours sitting in the truck, his cheeks literally freezing, until someone came to help him.
Fr. Ciszek found ways to continue his ministry as a priest. He memorized the prayers of the Mass by heart, in case someone took his Mass kit away. He would offer Mass in the forest after work, using a stump as an altar. He befriended the children and teens at the camp, asking what they had learned about God in school (nothing) and answering their questions. The teens especially were curious about religion. Mostly though, he turned his demanding work into prayer.
Then, unexpectedly, in June 1941 at 3:00 AM secret police surrounded the barracks where he was sleeping. They found two bottles of Mass wine, a half-pound bag of tooth powder, and a sheet of paper with letters on it, which Fr. Ciszek had been using to teach a little boy the alphabet. The secret police claimed that the bottles contained nitroglycerin and the powder was gun powder: materials for making bombs. The paper with the letters was a secret code. In short, Fr. Ciszek must be a German spy.
For two months Fr. Ciszek was imprisoned in a 30 by 30 foot cell containing more than 100 people.
“Of course, there was no such thing as privacy, even to perform the natural processes. Each evening we were led in groups to the prison toilet, but at all other times we had to use a covered barrel in the cell. The odor in the room was foul. Every afternoon, too, we were taken out in groups to walk in the courtyard for perhaps twenty minutes of exercise. Otherwise, we were confined like sardines, with not even enough room to stretch out and sleep. The only measure of privacy was to withdraw within yourself, as many did, or else to engage in conversation with one or two people nearest you and try to ignore what was happening in the rest of the room.”
Sometimes people were called out for interrogation. Some never returned; some came back with bruises. Fr. Ciszek himself was interrogated, sometimes for a whole day. They knew far more about him than he ever expected. They always asked the same questions. Who were his contacts? What kind of information had he sent to the Germans? No matter how often he told his story, they refused to believe him. He was hit, beaten with clubs, drugged, and put into solitary confinement: a cell of complete darkness.
Fr. Ciszek spent four years at the famous prison of Lubianka. For almost a year he lived in a room alone, speaking to no one. He did his best to order his day around prayer. He would scrub his wood floor twice each day for exercise. He read voraciously, including many classic Russian novels. Outside he could hear the sound of German planes dropping bombs onto Moscow.
Still, the interrogations continued.
“The weary round of questioning continued; since there had never actually been any espionage or sabotage plot, they couldn’t prove anything, but they kept doggedly insisting. Tired of the subject as I was, I was equally dogged in insisting that my only motives for entering Russia, or going anywhere in Russia--no matter where--had been purely spiritual ones, like those of priests anywhere.”
Fr. Ciszek and the communists spoke different languages and by that, I do not mean English and Russia. The communists simply could not understand the spiritual realm. It probably would have been easier for Fr. Ciszek to make up a story and go along with their insistence that he was a spy. But he spoke the truth and held fast to the truth of his spiritual motivations. Our Lord said that the truth will set you free. It would be many years before Fr. Ciszek would be physically free, but his soul was free .. and he continued to depend on God during those long years in prison, learning to abandon himself to Divine Providence.
"Lubianka was a hard school, but a good one. I learned there the lesson which would keep me going in the years to come: religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it a new meaning. In Lubianka I grew firmer in my conviction that whatever happened in my life was nothing else than a reflection of God’s will for me. And He would protect me."
After being found guilty of espionage, Fr. Ciszek was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in Siberia. There he worked as a coal loader, miner, and construction worker. Many times he almost died: he was electrocuted and once the ceiling in one of the shafts of the mine almost fell on top of him. But there were other dangers. Many of the other prisoners were common thieves and fights would break out within camp. In 1952 there was a revolt in the work camps and the Russian troops had to violently restore order.
Here Fr. Ciszek quietly ministered to his hidden flock. He would offer Mass in another priest’s barrack. He would go on walks outside and seemingly “run into” a group of two or three men … and quietly distribute Holy Communion to them. He heard confessions and even offered retreats.
In April 1955 Fr. Ciszek was informed that he had served his sentence. He was now a free man … but not really. The KGB informed him where he would live and even how much money he could earn. He also had to report to the police station and tell them his address.
As soon as he was settled, Fr. Ciszek quietly resumed his priestly duties: baptizing, offering Mass, witnessing marriages. His parish grew as more people came, seeking the sacraments. They were starving for them. And yet, just when his ministry was really thriving, the KGB told Fr. Ciszek he had to leave that city and move somewhere else, since he was “agitating the people.” So he left, went to a new city, and began his spiritual work once again.
Eventually, in 1963, Fr. Ciszek was allowed to return to the United States, in exchange for a Russian spy. As the plane took off leaving Russia, he made the Sign of the Cross over the country where he had been wrongly accused, sentenced without a trial, beaten, starved, worked mercilessly, frozen, and imprisoned. But it was not a curse he offered for all that suffering and pain; he offered a blessing. He was called to Russia to minister to the Russian people and that he did--in prison, in Siberia, in the cities controlled by the communists. They were his flock and, trusting in Divine Providence, he was their shepherd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2022
It's a story of real hardship, which Ciszek chose to bear for the glory of God, because he saw something greater than himself and was willing to sacrifice his every minute. Heroes like him are rarely written about now. We live in a time of fantasy, worshipping fiction when men like this toiled and suffered and overcame circumstances that we can scarcely imagine. I'm very glad that I read it, and I would implore others to do the same.
April 1, 2022
This story was deeply moving and very inspiring. It took me a long time to read because of school, not because it wasn’t interesting or a bad read.
Fr. Ciszek’s story brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart feel so many emotions while reading it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves to read.
Fr. Ciszek’s story brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart feel so many emotions while reading it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves to read.
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