Michał Piaszczyński
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Michael Piaszczynski (1 November 1885 – 18 December 1940) was a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...
who was arrested by the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s and killed at
Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...
. As a
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
he was
beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...
by
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
on 13 June 1999.


Life

Michael Piaszczynski was born in
Łomża Łomża () is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Łomża County and has been the se ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, the son of Ferdynand and Anna Zientara. He was ordained to the priesthood on 13 June 1911. He was parish priest in Mikaszówka, Poland for a year before moving to
Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
to earn a doctorate in philosophy. Father Piaszczynski served as a chaplain to a colony of Polish miners in France. From 1919 to 1935, he served at the Theological Seminary in the
Diocese of Łomża In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...
and as a faculty member of the
Piotr Skarga Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski, incorrectly: Pawęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealt ...
Secondary School in Łomża.


Arrest and Death

In September 1939, Father Piaszczynski became director of St. Casimir Secondary School in Sejnach. He was arrested on 7 April 1940 during the
Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland During the German occupation of Poland (1939–1945), the Nazis brutally suppressed the Catholic Church in Poland, most severely in German-occupied areas of Poland. Thousands of churches and monasteries were systematically closed, seized or d ...
and was moved to Sachsenhausen on 3 May 1940. During his detention, Father Piaszczynski was in the habit of giving up his own scarce ration of bread to elderly Jewish inmates. One of them said to him "You, Catholics, believe that the living Christ is to be found in the bread within your churches; I believe that Christ lives in this very bread, which He made you share with me”. Piaszczynski died of physical exhaustion and related illness on 18 December 1940.


Beatification

On 13 June 1999, Pope John Paul II beatified Michael Piaszczynski along with the
108 Martyrs of World War II The 108 Martyrs of World War II, known also as the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs (), were Catholics from Poland killed during World War II by Nazi Germany. Their liturgical feast day is 12 June. The 108 were beatified on 13 June 1999 by Pope John P ...
.


See also

*
Polish Righteous Among the Nations The citizens of Poland have the highest count of individuals who have been recognized by Yad Vashem as the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II. There are Polish men and w ...
*
The Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust saw the ghettoization, robbery, deportation and mass murder of Jews, alongside other groups under Nazi racial theories, similar racial pretexts in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland by the Nazi Germany. Over th ...
*
World War II casualties of Poland Around 6 million Polish citizens perished during World War II: about one fifth of the entire pre-war population of Poland. Most of them were civilian victims of the war crimes and the crimes against humanity which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Uni ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piaszczynski, Michał 1885 births 1940 deaths 20th-century Polish Roman Catholic priests People from Łomża People who died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp Beatifications by Pope John Paul II 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs Polish beatified people Polish civilians killed in World War II Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era