Romuald Jałbrzykowski (7 February 1876 – 19 June 1955) was a Polish

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest. From 1925 to 1926 he was the bishop of Łomża; from 1926 to 1955, archbishop of Wilno (Vilnius) and from 1945 to 1955, bishop of

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

. ''1939: the year that changed everything in Lithuania's history'' by Sarunas Liekis 2009 pages 221–228 While Jałbrzykowski was the Archbishop of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, Saint

Faustina Kowalska Maria Faustyna Kowalska, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938), also known as ''Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament'', Faustyna popularly spelled "Faustina", was a Polish Catholic religious sister an ...

was a nun at the convent there, and her confessor was Father

Michael Sopocko Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

. Jałbrzykowski gave Sopocko permission to display the

Divine Mercy image The Image of the Divine Mercy is a depiction of Jesus Christ that is based on the devotion initiated by Faustina Kowalska. According to Kowalska's diary, Jesus told her "I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish ...

for the first time ever during a Mass on April 28, 1935, the second Sunday of Easter; the feast that is now officially called

Divine Mercy Sunday Divine Mercy Sunday (also known as the Feast of the Divine Mercy) is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter, which concludes the Octave of Easter. The feast day is observed in the Roman Rite calendar, as well as some Anglo-Catholics of the ...

.''Faustina: The Apostle of Divine Mercy'' by Catherine M. Odell 1998 Jałbrzykowski knew Faustina, and she had been to confession with him and told him about the Divine Mercy devotion. In January 1936, Faustina went to see him again to discuss a new congregation for Divine Mercy, but he reminded her that she was perpetually vowed to her current order. In the summer of 1936, Jalbrzykowski provided his

imprimatur An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the R ...

for the first brochure on the

Divine Mercy The Divine Mercy is a form of God's compassion, an act of grace based on trust or forgiveness. In Catholicism, it refers specifically to a devotion which had its origin in the apparitions of Jesus Christ reported by Faustina Kowalska. Etymolog ...

devotion, written by Sopocko. In 1939, a year after Faustina's death, Jałbrzykowski noticed that her predictions about the war had taken place and allowed public access to the

. That resulted in large crowds and led to the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion. From 1942 to 1944, he was imprisoned by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In 1945 he was freed by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

, only to be quickly deported to Poland, as the Soviets tried to destroy the

archdiocese of Vilnius The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Vilnius ( la, Archidioecesis Vilnensis; lt, Vilniaus arkivyskupija) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania. Established as the Diocese of Vilnius in t ...

in the

Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...

. He died in 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalbrzykowski, Romuald 1876 births 1955 deaths Roman Catholic archbishops of Vilnius Bishops of Białystok Bishops of Łomża 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Lithuania People from Zambrów County

See also

References