Regina: “There was a need for a place. And we were looking for someone who could keep the equipment in his house, but everyone was afraid. So we had to keep it here (in the barn). Later the prayer books were secretly printed in a printing house. And here we folded and bound them. For more than a year and a half, people worked here constantly making prayer books except on Sundays. They worked up in the attic.
“There was an acute shortage of such books. But it was forbidden to print them. And it was imperative that someone should do it. The government wouldn't and the need was great. Everything was done by priests. If it had not been for Priest Zepski and the bishop…here with us…the beginning was here. Thousands of books were made. Four people working for one and a half years…they produced a lot. Father Zepski brought a huge amount of paper here. Later this paper was used by my brother-in-law, Povelis, when he printed, 'Kronika'. If anybody had to hide anything, it was brought here.
“If you were too afraid, you would never do things like that. You ought not to be afraid. I can't say I didn't feel fear, I felt it! But I lived through it! Always I knew I ought to do this work…for God and for motherland.”
The Underground Press worked in constant danger of being discovered by the K.G.B. The K.G.B. were always a threat….always adding to their dossiers. Nevertheless, the Catholic Underground Press became the foundation of a modern, free Catholic magazine.
Now, the adventures of Regina Bousiène are over; and she has survived them all!
Regina: “If I'd been without the faith, I would not have survived. If I didn't believe that freedom would come, and if I didn't know God, I couldn't have born it. It's quiet when you confide in God.”
Regina
“We made the rosary from crumbs of bread…”
Regina
“Other people had already been arrested.”
Regina
“If I'd been without the faith, I would not have survived…”
Regina Bousiène lives in a quiet and peaceful place in the countryside of Lithuania. She is an extremely courageous woman. She saw resistance against the Communist Regime as her natural duty as a Catholic.
She openly went to church…always, even though it was dangerous; because she was involved with the Resistance. When she helped the Partisans who were hiding in the forest, she became sick. She had water on her lungs and high fever. She could hardly breathe, so they had to take her to the hospital. And although she was extremely ill, she was arrested by the K.G.B.
Regina: “After Stalin died on March the 12th, K.G.B. officers came to the hospital and arrested me. How they shadowed me, I don't know. I didn't have my own clothes so they brought me to the K.G.B. in hospital clothes and slippers. I spent one day and two nights sitting at the K.G.B.
“They interrogated me. My temperature rose to 40 degrees (centigrade) and tears began to flow. Then they took me to the ward after the investigation. I didn't know what they would ask and couldn't say what I knew. Other people had already been arrested. I didn't know what they would say; and with this fever…my head went round. I was investigated. I spent five weeks in the K.G.B. prison.
“You know, at ten o'clock you had to go to bed in prison. But at that time, I was turned out for interrogation. When I was too weak, they couldn't interrogate me. But I had to spend all night in the cubicle of the interrogator. At six in the morning, he got up. I asked him please to allow me to sleep for a few hours. He allowed me to sleep two hours, then I had to get up. In the cell, it was forbidden to lean against the wall. I was only allowed to stand or sit, but in such a position that through the small window in the door, they could see my face. If I closed my eyes, the jailer struck the door and ordered me not to sleep.
“We prayed from memory. There were no prayer books. We made the rosary from crumbs of bread. I made these rosaries; and during the search, they would take them from me twice. I pulled out a thread from the handkerchief and made the beads from bread and let it dry and harden. I made holes with a fish bone. And if I had tooth powder, made the cross white. And then I prayed from memory, as much as I knew.”
Regina Bousiène was asked by a priest if she could help him. He needed a place to carry out his illegal work of printing prayer books. She immediately said, 'Yes'; and took the risk of being imprisoned again, when her farm became the house of the Underground Catholic Press.
