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

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest.

Life

Jałbrzykowski was born in Łętowo-Dąb, and he attended the seminary in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He was ordained in 1901, and he became the titular bishop of Cuse in 1918. From 1925 to 1926 he was the bishop of Łomża; from 1926 to 1955, archbishop of Wilno (Vilnius); from 1945 to 1955 he was exiled and seated in

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

(in the Polish part of his Archdiocese) for the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. While Jałbrzykowski was the Archbishop of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Saint

Faustina Kowalska Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938) was a Catholic Church in Poland, Polish Catholic religious sister and Christia ...

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 * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

. 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 Divine Mercy (Catholic devotion), Divine Mercy devotion initiated by Faustina Kowalska. According to Kowalska's diary, Jesus told her "I promise that the soul that w ...

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 a feast day that is observed in the Roman Rite calendar, as well as some Anglo-Catholics of the Church of England (it is not an official Anglican feast). It is celebrated on th ...

.''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 The Divine Mercy is a Catholic devotion to the mercy of God associated with the reported apparitions of Jesus to Faustina Kowalska. The Divine Mercy devotion is composed of several practices such as the Divine Mercy Sunday, the Chaplet of t ...

. 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 Catho ...

for the first brochure on the Divine Mercy 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 Divine Mercy image. That resulted in large crowds and led to the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion. In 1940, after the transfer of the

Vilnius Region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territory ...

to Lithuania under the

Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty (, ) was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius ...

, Jałbrzykowski was informed by the Lithuanian authorities that he must leave the county. He was arrested in 1942, and from 1942 to 1944 he was imprisoned by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

at the monastery in

Marijampolė Marijampolė (; also known by Marijampolė#Names, several other names) is the Capital city, capital of Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The city's population stood ...

and then deported. After the war, he returned to Vilnius but was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. He was then deported to Poland in 1946, as the Soviets tried to destroy the

archdiocese of Vilnius 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 ...

in the

Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; ; ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was ''de facto'' one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944 ...

. Jałbrzykowski was attacked in the communist press in 1953, accused of being an "enemy of the people's democracy," "threatening patriotic priests with canonical punishment," and being a "servant of Vatican imperialism." 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

Life

See also

References