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 * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

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 layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

who was arrested by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

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 ...

. As a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', 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 externa ...

he was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "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 nam ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 13 June 1999.

Life

Michael Piaszczynski was born in

Łomża Łomża (), in English known as Lomza, is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship si ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, the son of Ferdynand and Anna Zientara. He was ordained to the priesthood on 13 June 1911. He was parish priest in

Mikaszówka Mikaszówka is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Płaska, within Augustów County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It lies approximately east of Płaska, east of Augustów, and n ...

, Poland for a year before moving to

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () o ...

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 associate ...

and as a faculty member of the

Piotr Skarga Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratorica ...

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 dest ...

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 ( pl, 108 błogosławionych męczenników), were Roman Catholics from Poland killed during World War II by Nazi Germany. Their liturgical feast day is 12 June. The 108 ...

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

Life

Arrest and Death

Beatification

See also

References