Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 12, 2025 / 16:00 pm

The family of Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher who returned to the U.S. after being detained in Russia for more than three years, has shared with EWTN how devotion to the holy rosary sustained them throughout his imprisonment.

“We tried to coordinate it so we could be praying at the same time,” Fogel’s 95-year-old mother, Malphine, said in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol. “I did the same thing with my sisters, so at 9:30 at night we always prayed the rosary simultaneously, and I think it helped all of us, and I think particularly Marc.”

Malphine Fogel, who fought relentlessly for her son’s release — even filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government — also revealed that Fogel, a devout Catholic, had access to a chapel during his detainment, which she said he visited every day.

“Our faith has really helped us through this whole ordeal,” she said, “and we thank God for that.”

“This is not the end of the road,” Sasha Phillips, Fogel’s family lawyer, told Sabol.

“Marc will have to go through a fairly long rehabilitation process,” she said and appealed for continued prayers from EWTN viewers. “We need to hold Marc up, we need to tell him that he is loved and that God is on his side.”

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz announced Fogel’s release on Tuesday, stating that President Donald Trump, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s advisers had negotiated a prisoner exchange to procure Fogel’s return.

Waltz further described the exchange as “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”

Trump had promised on the campaign trail that, if elected, he would bring about Fogel’s release. Malphine, a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania, told “EWTN News Nightly” that she had met with Trump on July 13, 2024, just before he took the stage at the now-infamous rally in her hometown and that he had assured her of his promise.

Prior to the assassination attempt that took place that day, Malphine had been scheduled to appear with Trump onstage to speak about her son.

“[Trump] remembered Marc Fogel’s name, and Marc is on his way home and into Malphine’s arms today,” Phillips said.

Fogel was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after trying to enter the country with 0.6 ounces of marijuana in his bag, which he had been using to treat chronic back pain. He had been traveling back to Moscow from the U.S. for his teaching job at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. Russian prosecutors charged Fogel with drug possession and accused him of intending to sell to his students. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.