Ideoloģija un moceklība: 1919. gada 28. martā Daugavpilī boļševiku nogalinātā Asūnes katoļu draudzes grupa
Ideology and Martyrdom: on March 28, 1919 in Daugavpils Bolsheviks Murdered Catholics from Asūnes

Summary/Abstract: Christians are one of the most persecuted religious groups in the contemporary world. Based on the research methodology of American sociologists T. M. Johnson and B. D. Barret, who do not consider martyrdom as an individual phenomenon, which requires the clear profession of faith, rather they see it as “martyrdom situations”, the renowned Italian sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne claims that “each year the number of murdered Christians reaches 105000 – one Christian every 5 Minutes”. In the history of the Latvian Church such “martyrdom situations” have taken place three times. The former notary and archivist of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Riga bishop Janis Cakuls (Jānis Cakuls) divides history of martyrdom into three periods. The first period includes martyrs from the time of the Christianization of Latvia in the XIII century. The second period refers to the times of the Bolshevik terror 1917-1920. To the third period belong the witnesses of faith who were murdered during the years of the Soviet occupation from 1940 until 1990. Following the appeal of Pope John Paul II to do everything possible “to collect the necessary documentation, so that the commemoration of the martyrs does not go lost”, this research paper aims to concentrate attention to the event that took place in Daugavpils on March 27-28, 1919. On that day Bolsheviks executed a group of believers from the Catholic congregation of Asūnes. Starting from the April 2, 1919 this event was recorded in press and other publication up to the year 2014. The analysis of these materials, produced by the Bolsheviks, journalists of the independent Latvia, court documents, materials of the Nazis as well as Catholic press, reveal the ideological tendencies, which influence the way of the interpretation of this tragic event. Among these different points of view, the Catholic sources give a comprehensive explanation of the death of Asune Christians. One can qualify the death of these innocent people as an expression of the hatred against the Christian faith and those killed as martyrs or more precisely, as quasi-martyrs.

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