The text mentions Hluusk, located in the Bobruisk district. The history of this settlement is recalled, as well as the story of J. K. A. Polubinsky, who brought the Bernardine monks to Hluusk and founded a monastery there. Also described is the local church, originally wooden, replaced by a brick one in the 18th century (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany' Warsaw 1920, no. 2, pp. 9-10, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Church in Hłusk

Situated in the Bobruisk district of the Minsk region, Hluusk is one of the oldest settlements in the borderlands. Before Poland placed the emblem of Christ's Passion in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Hluusk was the main stronghold of paganism, which could not be destroyed by the efforts of the Eastern Church clergy, then concentrated mainly in Minsk Polesie, in Parva.
The translations of the popes did not help, neither did military battles, and Hluusk and its surroundings remained in their paganism, and it was only at the end of the 14th century that the gloomy gloom dissipated a little, when the union with Poland provided the Grand Duchy of Lithuania not only with a defence from the Teutonic hordes, but also with the rays of the Holy Faith and culture in general.

The great neglect of culture in the 14th century before the adoption of Baptism is described by Jacob Caro, a German historian, in his work "Geschichte Polens". In volume II, on pp. 20-21, he writes: "The Lithuanians, especially the Poles, from Turow to beyond Hlusk and beyond, are completely unfamiliar with agriculture. They feed miserably from hunting and fishing. The whole country is plunged into opaque darkness. In months of 10, the ice there did not thaw. Summer lasted only two months. No grain ripened; the ears, if oats were sometimes sown, were dried by the fire. The entire population lived in shacks made of wood and branches. The wealthiest were no exception. The way of life was nomadic". (Chapter: "Lithuania before the Baptism").

Situated among deathless forests, lakes and marshes, Hlušk supposedly resisted the rays of the light of civilisation and the Christian faith for the longest time. Not much, let us say, changed in Hluusk and its surroundings, as well as in the whole of Lithuania, even in the 16th century, as Sigismund Augustus, the prince-king, wrote in 1547 to Fr Samuel Maciejowski, the bishop of Krakow: "There are still very fresh breezes of Christian faith in this our Lithuania outside Vilnius, especially in Polesia, where the people, not yet baptised at all, have not abandoned paganism. In the vicinity of Hluško, the population is so dark that it worships groves, oaks, lindens, rivulets, boulders and snakes, and makes generous offerings to them". The King's manuscript, we should add, is carefully preserved in the Czartoryski Library in Kraków (volume KS, 32). It was not until the 17th century that Hłusk appeared in the public arena, when the extensive Hłusk estate was granted by Jan Kazimierz to Alexander Połubiński, Voivode of Parnavė, and later Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in return for a severe defeat inflicted on the Swedes in 1656.

P. raised the value of Hluško very high, and in order to strengthen the principles of faith, he brought in Bernardine monks and founded a monastery (1662). The Hlučiansk monks were famous for their schools and shelters for the sick and the poor. The Hluškiai monastery survived until 1832, when Catholic orders were abolished in the borderlands. As a bequest of one of the Połubinskis, the Hłusk estate came into the possession of the Radziwiłłs in the 18th century. The local church, originally wooden, founded by Marsh. Połubiński, was replaced in the 18th century by a brick temple and immensely richly furnished. In addition to the vast areas of land granted by the Połubiński and Radziwiłł families, it possessed bizarre, exquisitely priced church furnishings: monstrances, patens, chalices, etc., all of pure gold, lavishly set with diamonds, emeralds and rubies.

In the era of our captivity, these valuables were often the object of desire of various influential gentlemen.
In 1878, the Hluki church was plundered to the ground by the notorious 'canon' Sekhchkovsky, a renegade Russifier and persona grata with the government. Perhaps, this sacrilege would have escaped Mr. 'Canon', if it had not been for his rivalry with the governor of Minsk, who was also on the lookout for beautiful valuables of the Hluki church. Unable to get them otherwise, the governor decided to take the church and give it to the popes, and convert it into a schismatic church. In the course of these innovations he intended to deal with the church vessels.

Suddenly, he finds out that the "canon", his protégé, has already managed to scamper away with all the gold and diamonds of the Halus, yes, even cashing them in to the Jews. He took revenge on the sacrilegious priest and won an order in St. Petersburg to lock him up in the Franciscan monastery in Grodno for two years for robbing the church. It is interesting to note, however, that the governor has since completely abandoned his intention of robbing the Catholic population of the Hluj church. Stolen by Sekhkovsky, the church was no longer on the list of catholic houses of God destined for destruction. It was no longer worth the effort and care.