108 Martyrs of World War Two
Encyclopedia
The 108 Martyrs of World War II, known also as 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs , were Roman Catholics from Poland killed during World War II
by the Nazis
.
Their liturgical feast
day is 12 June. The 108 were beatified on 13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II at Warsaw
, Poland. The group comprises 3 bishop
s, 52 priest
s, 26 members of male religious order
s, 3 seminarians
, 8 religious sisters
and 9 lay people
. There are two parishes named for the 108 Martyrs of World War II in Powiercie
in Koło County, and in Malbork
, Poland.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Their liturgical feast
Feast
Feast may refer to:* Banquet, a large meal* A Festival or feria* Ramadan, Muslim's holy month* Nineteen Day Feast, a monthly meeting held in Bahá'í communities to worship, consult, and socialize....
day is 12 June. The 108 were beatified on 13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II at Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland. The group comprises 3 bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s, 52 priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
s, 26 members of male religious order
Religious order
A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...
s, 3 seminarians
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
, 8 religious sisters
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
and 9 lay people
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
. There are two parishes named for the 108 Martyrs of World War II in Powiercie
Powiercie
Powiercie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Koło, within Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Koło and east of the regional capital Poznań.The village has a population of 710....
in Koło County, and in Malbork
Malbork
Malbork is a town in northern Poland in the Żuławy region , with 38,478 inhabitants . Situated in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously assigned to Elbląg Voivodeship...
, Poland.
Bishops
- Antoni Julian NowowiejskiAntoni Julian NowowiejskiAntoni Julian Nowowiejski was a Polish bishop of Płock , titular archbishop of Silyum, first secretary of Polish Episcopal Conference , honorary citizen of Płock and historian...
, (1858–1941 KL Działdowo), bishop - Leon Wetmański, (1886–1941 KL Działdowo), bishop
- Władysław Goral, (1898–1945 KL Sachsenhausen), bishop
Priests
- Adam Bargielski, priest from Myszyniec (1903–1942 KL Dachau)
- Aleksy Sobaszek, priest (1895–1942 KL Dachau)
- Alfons Maria Mazurek, CarmeliteCarmelitesThe Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
friarFriarA friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
, priorPriorPrior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...
, priest (1891–1944, shot by the GestapoGestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
) - Alojzy Liguda, Society of the Divine Word, priest (1898–1942 KL Dachau)
- Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz, FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friar, priest (1882–1942 KL Dachau) - Anicet Kopliński, Capuchin friar of German descent, priest in Warsaw (1875–1941)
- Antoni Beszta-Borowski, priest, dean of Bielsk Podlaski (1880–1943, shot near Bielsk Podlaski)
- Antoni Leszczewicz, Marian FatherCongregation of Marian FathersThe Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a Roman Catholic male clerical religious congregation founded, 1673, in Poland...
, priest (1890–1943, burnt to death in Rosica, Belarus) - Antoni Rewera, priest, dean of the Cathedral Chapter in Sandomierz (1869–1942 KL Dachau)
- Antoni Świadek, priest from Bydgoszcz (1909–1945 KL Dachau)
- Antoni Zawistowski, priest (1882–1942 KL Dachau)
- Bolesław Strzelecki, priest (1896–1941 KL Auschwitz)
- Bronisław Komorowski, priest (1889–22 March 1940 KL Stutthof)
- Dominik Jędrzejewski, priest (1886–1942 KL Dachau)
- Edward Detkens, priest (1885–1942 KL Dachau)
- Edward Grzymała, priest (1906–1942 KL Dachau)
- Emil Szramek, priest (1887–1942 KL Dachau)
- Fidelis Chojnacki, Capuchin friar, priest (1906–1942, KL Dachau)
- Florian Stępniak, Capuchin friar, priest (1912–1942 KL Dachau)
- Franciszek Dachtera, priest (1910–23 August 1942 KL Dachau)
- Franciszek Drzewiecki, Orionine FatherSons of Divine ProvidenceThe Sons of Divine Providence , or Orionine Fathers, was founded in 1893 by Saint Luigi Orione in Turin, Italy...
, priest (1908–1942 KL Dachau); from Zduny, he was condemned to heavy work in the plantation of Dachau. While he was bending over tilling the soil, he adored the consecrated hosts kept in a small box in front of him. While he was going to the gas chamber, he encouraged his companions, saying "We offer our life for God, for the Church and for our Country". - Franciszek RogaczewskiFranciszek RogaczewskiFranciszek Rogaczewski was a Polish Catholic priest who was arrested by the Nazis and killed at Stutthof concentration camp. He is considered a martyr, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999.-Life:...
, priest from Gdańsk (1892–1940, shot in Stutthof or in Piaśnica, Pomerania) - Franciszek Rosłaniec, priest (1889–1942 KL Dachau)
- Henryk Hlebowicz, priest (1904–1941, shot at Borisov in Belarus)
- Henryk Kaczorowski, priest from Włocławek (1888–1942)
- Henryk Krzysztofik, religious order, priest (1908–1942 KL Dachau)
- Hilary Paweł Januszewski, religious order, priest (1907–1945 KL Dachau)
- Jan Antonin Bajewski, Conventual Franciscan friar, priest (1915–1941 KL Auschwitz); of Niepokalanow. These were the closest collaborators of St Maximilian Kolbe in the fight for God’s cause and together suffered and helped each other spiritually in their offering their lives at Auschwitz
- Jan Franciszek CzartoryskiJan Franciszek CzartoryskiPrince Jan Franciszek Czartoryski or Blessed Michał was a Polish noble, Dominican.Jan was activist of the young organisation "Odrodzenie" in Lwów...
, DominicanDominican OrderThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friar, priest (1897–1944) - Jan Nepomucen Chrzan, priest (1885–1942 KL Dachau)
- Jerzy Kaszyra, Marian Father, priest (1910–1943, burnt to death in Rosica, Belarus)
- Józef Achilles PuchałaJózef Achilles PuchałaJózef Achilles Puchała – Polish Franciscan monk from the Iwieniec monastery, tortured and killed by the Nazis during World War II and beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 13, 1999.At the age of 16 he was admitted to the order of Franciscans...
, Franciscan friar, priest (1911–1943, killed near Iwieniec, Belarus) - Józef CebulaJózef CebulaBlessed Józef Cebula was a Polish priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate .Born on 23 March 1902 into a modest family, he suffered tuberculosis as a youth and was declared incurable at first; but after his recovery, he went to an Oblate shrine and shared his story with Father Jan...
, Missionary OblateMissionary Oblates of Mary ImmaculateThe Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816 by Saint Eugene de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, 1782. The congregation was given recognition by Pope...
, priest (23 March 1902–9 May 1941 KL Mauthausen) - Józef Czempiel, priest (1883–1942 KL Mauthausen)
- Józef Innocenty Guz, Franciscan friar, priest (1890–1940 KL Sachsenhausen)
- Józef Jankowski, PallotinePallottinesThe Society of the Catholic Apostolate , better known as the Pallottines, are a Society of Apostolic Life within the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1835 by the Roman priest Saint Vincent Pallotti. Pallottines are part of the Union of Catholic Apostolate and are present in 45 countries on six...
, priest, (1910 born in CzyczkowyCzyczkowyCzyczkowy is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Brusy, within Chojnice County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Brusy, north-east of Chojnice, and south-west of the regional capital Gdańsk....
near Brusy, KashubiaKashubiaKashubia or Cassubia - is a language area in the historic Eastern Pomerania region of northwestern Poland. Located west of Gdańsk and the mouth of the Vistula river, it is inhabited by members of the Kashubian ethnic group....
(died 16 October 1941 in KL Auschwitz beaten by kapo) - Józef KowalskiJózef KowalskiJózef Kowalski is, at age 111, thought to be Poland's oldest living man. He is thought to be the oldest verified military veteran in the world, following the death of Gertrude Noone. He is also the only living verified veteran of the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War. Kowalski served in the 22nd Uhlan...
, SalesianSalesians of Don BoscoThe Salesians of Don Bosco is a Roman Catholic religious order founded in the late nineteenth century by Saint John Bosco in an attempt, through works of charity, to care for the young and poor children of the industrial revolution...
, priest (1911–1942) - Józef Kurzawa, priest (1910–1940)
- Józef Kut, priest (1905–1942 KL Dachau)
- Józef Pawłowski, priest (1890–9 January 1942 KL Dachau)
- Józef Stanek, Pallottine, priest (1916–23 September 1944, murdered in Warsaw)
- Józef Straszewski, priest (1885–1942 KL Dachau)
- Karol Herman Stępień, Franciscan friar, priest (1910–1943, killed near Iwieniec, Belarus)
- Kazimierz Gostyński, priest (1884–1942 KL Dachau)
- Kazimierz Grelewski, priest (1907–1942 KL Dachau)
- Kazimierz Sykulski, priest (1882–1942 KL Auschwitz)
- Krystyn Gondek, Franciscan friar, priest (1909–1942 KL Dachau)
- Leon NowakowskiLeon NowakowskiLeon Nowakowski, nom de guerre "Lig", was a Polish soldier, a member of the Home Army and the moderate faction of the National Armed Forces which merged with it, with a rank of major, creator and later the commander of the Chrobry II Battalion, participant in the Warsaw Uprising.-References:*...
, priest (1913–1939) - Ludwik Mzyk, Society of the Divine Word, priest (1905–1940)
- Ludwik Pius Bartosik, Conventual Franciscan friar, priest (1909–1941 KL Auschwitz); of Niepokalanow. These were the closest collaborators of St Maximilian Kolbe in the fight for God’s cause and together suffered and helped each other spiritually in their offering their lives at Auschwitz
- Ludwik Roch Gietyngier, priest from Częstochowa (1904–1941 KL Dachau)
- Maksymilian Binkiewicz, priest (1913–24 July 1942, beaten, died in KL Dachau)
- Marian Gorecki, priest (1903–22 March 1940 KL Stutthof)
- Marian Konopiński, Capuchin friar, priest (1907–1 January 1943 KL Dachau)
- Marian Skrzypczak, priest (1909–1939 shot in Plonkowo)
- Michał Oziębłowski, priest (1900–1942 KL Dachau)
- Michał Piaszczyński, priest (1885–1940 KL Sachsenhausen)
- Michał Woźniak, priest (1875–1942 KL Dachau)
- Mieczysław Bohatkiewicz, priest (1904–4 March 1942, shot in Berezwecz)
- Narcyz Putz, priest (1877–1942 KL Dachau)
- Narcyz Turchan, , priest (1879–1942 KL Dachau)
- Piotr Edward Dankowski, priest (1908–3 April 1942 KL Auschwitz)
- Roman Archutowski, priest (1882–1943 KL Majdanek)
- Roman Sitko, priest (1880–1942 KL Auschwitz)
- Stanisław Kubista, Society of the Divine Word, priest (1898–1940 KL Sachsenhausen)
- Stanisław Kubski, priest (1876–1942, prisoner in KL Dachau, killed in Hartheim near Linz)
- Stanisław Mysakowski, priest (1896–1942 KL Dachau)
- Stanisław Pyrtek, priest (1913–4 March 1942, shot in Berezwecz)
- Stefan Grelewski, priest (1899–1941 KL Dachau)
- Wincenty Matuszewski, priest (1869–1940)
- Władysław Błądziński, Michaelite, priest (1908–1944, KL Gross-Rosen)
- Władysław Demski, priest (1884–28 May 1940, KL Sachsenhausen)
- Władysław Maćkowiak, priest (1910–4 March 1942 shot in Berezwecz)
- Władysław Mączkowski, priest (1911–20 August 1942 KL Dachau)
- Władysław Miegoń, priest, commandor lieutnant (1892–1942 KL Dachau)
- Włodzimierz Laskowski, priest (1886–1940 KL Gusen)
- Wojciech Nierychlewski, religious, priest (1903–1942, KL Auschwitz)
- Zygmunt Pisarski, priest (1902–1943)
- Zygmunt Sajna, priest (1897–1940, shot at Palmiry, near Warsaw)
Religious Brothers
- Brunon Zembol, friar (1905–1942 KL Dachau)
- Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak, friar (1911–1943, guillotined in Dresden)
- Józef Zapłata, friar (1904–1945 KL Dachau)
- Marcin Oprządek, friar (1884–1942 KL Dachau)
- Piotr Bonifacy Żukowski, friar (1913–1942 KL Auschwitz)
- Stanisław Tymoteusz Trojanowski, friar (1908–1942 KL Auschwitz)
- Symforian Ducki, friar (1888–1942 KL Auschwiitz)
Nuns and Religious Sisters
- Alicja Maria Jadwiga KotowskaAlicja KotowskaAlicja Jadwiga Kotowska was a Polish nun, head of the Resurrectionist convent in Wejherowo between 1934 and 1939, and a blessed of the Roman Catholic Church and a martyr killed by the German Nazis in 1939 in the Mass murders in Piaśnica.She is one of the 108 Martyrs of World War Two.-References:...
, sister (1899–1939, executed at PiaśnicaMass murders in PiaśnicaThe mass murders in Piaśnica were a set of mass executions carried out by Germans, during World War II, between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 in Piasnica Wielka in the Darzlubska Wilderness near Wejherowo. Standard estimates put the number of victims at between twelve thousand and fourteen...
, Pomerania) - Ewa Noiszewska, sister (1885–1942, executed at Góra Pietrelewicka near Slonim, Belarus)
- Julia Rodzińska, Dominican sister (1899–20 February 1945 KL Stutthof); she died having contracted typhoid serving the Jewish women prisoners in a hut for which she had volunteered.
- Katarzyna Celestyna Faron (1913–1944 KL Auschwitz); (1913–1944), had offered her life for the conversion of an Old Catholic bishop Władysław Faron (no relation). She was arrested by the Gestapo and condemned to Auschwitz camp. She put up heroically with all the abuses of the camp and died on Easter Sunday 1944. The bishop later returned to the Catholic Church).
- Maria Antonina Kratochwil, (1881–1942)
- Maria Klemensa Staszewska, (1890–1943 KL Auschwitz)
- Marta Wołowska, (1879–1942, executed at Góra Pietrelewicka near Slonim, Belarus)
- Mieczysława Kowalska, sister (1902–1941 KL Dzialdowo)
Roman Catholic Laity
- Bronisław Kostkowski, alumnus (1915–1942 KL Dachau)
- Czesław Jóźwiak (1919–1942, guillotined in a prison in Dresden)
- Edward Kaźmierski (1919–1942, guillotined in a prison in Dresden)
- Edward Klinik (1919–1942, guillotined in a prison in Dresden)
- Franciszek Kęsy (1920–1942, guillotined in a prison in Dresden)
- Franciszek Stryjas (1882–31 July 1944, Kalisz prison)
- Jarogniew Wojciechowski (1922–1942, guillotined in a prison in Dresden)
- Marianna Biernacka (1888–13 July 1943), offered her life for her unborn grandchild and was executed instead of her pregnant daughter-in-law
- Natalia TułasiewiczNatalia TułasiewiczNatalia Tułasiewicz was a teacher in Poznań, Poland and a leader in the Catholic lay apostolate. A member of the Polish Underground State, she died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, in a gas chamber. Tułasiewicz was beatified in 1999 as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War...
(1906–31 March 1945, died in KL Ravensbrück) - Stanisław Starowieyski (1895–13 April 1941 KL Dachau)
- Tadeusz Dulny, alumnus (1914–1942 KL Dachau)