The Declaration of War and its Consequences
 | New Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, Gorlice, where Saint Maximus' relics are to be enshrined. |
As stated above, Father Maximus and his fellow sufferers were acquitted and set free on June 6th, 1914. But on August 1st, barely two months later, war was declared between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Then throughout the Carpathian region, and especially in Galicia, began the mass arrests of all who were denounced as sympathizers with Russia. Those who identified themselves as Ukrainians provided the military authorities with lists of people to arrest. Thus it happened that on August 4th, three days after the declaration of war, Saint Maximus was arrested in Zhdynia, together with his pregnant wife, and his father Timko. They were escorted under guard to Gorlice.
In the winter of 1919, Timko Sandovich recounted their arrest and the martyrdom of his son as follows:
"They brought us from Zhdynia to Gorlice under guard. We arrived at about 9:00 at night, on August 4th, and put the three of us in one cell. We spent all of August 5th there.... On August 6th, at 5:00 in the morning, Nozhnitsky, the prison warden, entered our cell and said: 'You, Timko, and Mrs. Sandovich come with me. Your son is to stay here.'
"Nozhnitsky put me and my daughter-in-law in a cell which had a window facing out on the street. We did not know what was happening with my son until we heard the shots.
"Later, some people who had witnessed the death of Father Maximus told us that Wachtmeister Kalchinski and four gendarmes entered the cell in which Father Maximus was being held; two militiamen remained outside. Beyond the militiamen stood Deitrich, a German from Linz in Upper Austria.
"Kalchinski opened the door of the cell and cried out: 'Come out, Priest Sandovich!'
Leaving the cell. Father Maximus wanted to take his valise, but the gendarmes would not permit it. Demetrius Sobin, Alexander Telekh, and others who witnessed it through the windows of the prison, described the scene to me later. The gendarmes tied a blindfold over Father Maximus' eyes and bound his hands behind his back. Two militiamen guided him across the courtyard and stood him against the wall. They then withdrew for 5-6 paces. Father Maximus, knowing that the end of his earthly life was at hand, leaned back against the wall and prayed: 'Lord, bless!' Rotmeister Dietrich stood to Father Maximus' left. At his signal, the guardsmen took aim and fired their weapons. Two bullets hit him, but as he died he had enough strength to cry out: 'Long live Orthodox Rus!'
"Even though he was shot. Father Maximus did not fall down. Dietrich/ the militiamen and the gendarmes had not known what they were doing. Then Dietrich drew a revolver from his holster, approached Father Maximus as he stood at the wall, fired at his head, and shoved him hard with his hand, so that the dead body of the martyr fell to the ground.
"The students and villagers who witnessed the arrest and execution of Father Maximus from their windows saw, after he fell down, that there were two bloody holes in the wall. The body of the martyr was placed by the gendarmes on a stretcher and carried to the vestibule of the prison. Joseph Sliuzar saw them bring in a crude box made of barrel-staves roughly nailed together as a coffin for the martyr, and then, without a priest or any ceremony, they buried him in a hole dug in the Gorlice cemetery."
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Document URL: http://lemko.org/religion/maxim/4.html
Original page design and layout by Walter Maksimovich
E-mail: walter@lemko.org
Originally Composed: April 7th, 1997
Date last modified: December 1st, 2000