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Kategoria: Święci i Błogosławieni - teksty ENG
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Opublikowano: piątek, 12 czerwiec 2009 14:48
Brother Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak was born on July 18th, 1911 in Łowęcice, near Jarocin (the region of Wielkopolska). His parents, Andrzej and Zofia Plończak, owners of an average size farm, had nine sons and three daughters. Two of their children died in infancy. Boleslaw was the eighth child in the family. He was baptized in the parish church of Cerekwica and later went to school in Wojciechowo. He did not want to learn in the German language. In a Polish school he made more progress.
Instead of helping his parents at home Bolek preferred to play performing divine services, saying masses, preaching, etc. His parents did not find him a much helping hand on the farm. As an altar boy, however, he was perfect and soon became the right hand of the parish priest. Growing older he began feeling ashamed to assist at mass with the minor altar-boys, but willingly replaced those absent. Usually he went to confession and received Holy Communion once a month. Still a child he used to mould little crosses and figures of saints in clay and give them to his friends as gifts. On Sundays and feast days before lunch his father had a custom to question the boys about the topic of the sermon the priest preached that day. He never asked Bolek since he was always ready to preach himself. After school Bolek used to visit Bruczków situated nearby where Ms. Wanda Koczorowska ran an orphanage. That house was donated by her to the Divine Word Missionaries in 1927.
Bolek's parents, following the advice of Fr. Poczta, wanted to enrol him in the Minor Seminary. Unfortunately, the poor level of education in the primary school Bolek had attended did not give him a basis good enough for study at the seminary. Besides, the curriculum of the seminary education was meant to meet the needs of older boys. The seminary authorities advised Bolesław to pursue his vocation as a missionary brother. He took their advice and was admitted to Górna Grupa, near Grudziądz, where the Divine Word Missionaries had their postulancy and the novitiate for religious brothers.
Having completed one year of his postulancy Bolesław received his new name: Grzegorz together with his religious habit. It was on September 8th, 1930. He was the most zealous novice and after two years he took his first temporary vows. He worked in the printing press. He learned bookbinding there and soon became the principal bookbinder in the seminary. He worked diligently. He also taught some of the students how to bind books and frame paintings. People remembered him smiling and being always very helpful. He liked to be a helping hand in the sacristy, especially in decorating altars.
Bolek also worked willingly in the kitchen and in the reception where he took particular care of the poor. He used to say that the coming of the poor to the house was the coming of Jesus himself, so they should be received with love. We have his notebooks from that period. He noted prayers and spiritual exercises in them. The latter were called: "Daily Spiritual Exercises" and "Spiritual Exercises". They contain prayers of various authors, but also composed by Bolek himself, directed to the Immaculate Mother of God and to St.Joseph. Bolesław was particularly conscientious in saying so-called "quarterly prayers". The beginning of these prayers "Oh, God, I believe in you." was a genuine expression of his personal faith. Thanks to his natural kindness Bolesław won the esteem of all the members of the house, especially of the students. Br. Grzegorz awaited with joy the day of his perpetual vows because, as he said, "By this act not only in the depth of my heart but also formally I will be fully a member of the Society and I will be dedicated to its ideals". He took his perpetual vows on September 8th, 1938. Before that celebration, Fr. Jan Giczel, the novice master, described Bolek as a "faultless monk".
The beginning of the Second World War was a painful experience for him, as for many others. He became a bit more silent and reserved. He consoled himself with a thought that everything was in the hands of God. He tried to assure himself and the others with that thought even on that fateful solemnity of Christ the King when the Gestapo organized an internment camp in the house for all priests of the region and for the members of the SVD community. Religious brothers were eventually released from the camp but Bolesław remained there to help the internees. In February 1940, when all the priests were sent to the concentration camp Br. Grzegorz left Górna Grupa. At first he went to his brother's house in Poznań. However, there was no possibility to register him there as a resident and he had to leave the city. He went to Łowęcice, his birth place. There he started his underground work. Being in touch with Fr. Giczela, SVD, who was the parish priest in Rusko, and collaborating with his own parish priest Br. Grzegorz taught children religion twice a week and prepared some of them for their First Communion. He was also involved in visiting the sick and the elderly. After the Gestapo arrested Fr. Giczela on October 7th, 1941, Br. Grzegorz took care of the profaned Blessed Sacrament which the Gestapo scattered from the cyborium and left on the table. Br. Grzegorz collected the hosts and kept them in the organist's flat where he stayed himself. That same afternoon and during the whole night a small group of believers kept a vigil adorating Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In the morning Br. Grzegorz distributed the Holy Communion leaving some hosts away for the sick and elderly parishioners. He also baptized a few children in the coming days. The people remembered well his piety and dedication in performing these noble celebrations.
Martyrdom
When the German officials in Jarocin took notice that Br. Grzegorz was a bookbinder, they ordered him to take up a job in the printing-press. Willing to keep the spirits of his compatriots up, he started to collaborate in printing an underground newspaper called "For you, Poland". Eventually the Gestapo found out about that secret editorial activity. The arrests of those involved followed. That time Br. Grzegorz had not been a member of the group for about a year. He had talked to Fr. Kiczka, SVD, about his involvement, and the latter advised him to stay away from the whole affair. Fr. Kiczka wrote later about Br. Grzegorz: "He could simply disappear but he did not want to. He asked me whether he could offer himself up for the arrested in Jarocin, though he had nothing to do with the illegal leaflets for a year. I told him that if he felt strong enough to do it would be a heroic act. After confession and Holy Communion he went away.
The next day he was in prison where he asked all the arrested to shift the guilt on him. Apparently it worked since some of them were later released. The Nazis had already 'a thief' to torture..." He was taken away with others from the Jarocin prison to the Fort VII in Poznań. His brother wrote: "I took a parcel for Grzegorz and he also sent me one through the guards. It contained his broken watch, the rosary torn to pieces, torn and blood-stained jacket, too much blood..., an old shirt, also blood-stained. I took parcels to him twice, the third time they did not accept it telling me that he had been away". Br. Grzegorz's brother also remembered hearing from Grzegorz: "I hope our uncle (Wincenty) is at home. Let him be careful since he has been likewise implicated in this affair. I took the blame on myself. I do not care if I am killed. I am alone. He has got wife and children." Br. Grzegorz denounced nobody defending in that way his own brother and the others. He gave only two names of persons he knew they had already confessed themselves.
The way of his martyrdom led through Jarocin, Środa, and Fort VII in Poznan, where he was kept till the end of the year. Dresden was his final stop. His fellow-prisoners (Walenty and Antoni Kaczmarek) remembered Br. Grzegorz leading common prayers of the rosary, litanies and others.
At first the Nazis treated him just like one of the other prisoners. However, when they discovered a holy medal sewn up in his hat, they found out his connections with the clergy and began to treat him with cruelty. He did not defend himself remaining calm and patient. They were taking him to the barracks in Poznan and interrogated and tortured him there several times. The Nazis questioned him mainly about the leaflets. Getting no answers they beat him mercilessly. His connection with the clergy was another reason for their cruelty.
Transferred to a Dresden prison Br. Grzegorz was sentenced to death there. He was decapitated on May 5th, 1943. A couple of hours before his death Bolek wrote a letter to his family. It is worth quoting: "I write this letter to you, my dearest, for the last time in this worthless life and in this valley of tears. When you receive it I will be dead because today on Wednesday, May 5th, 1943 at 6.15 p.m. I will be decapitated. Say "Eternal rest" in my intention, please. I will depart in five hours but you do not cry but pray for my soul and for the souls of our beloved. I am going to greet the Father and all my relatives. I am not sure whether you should tell our Mother that I was decapitated or simply that I died. Do what you think is right. I can tell you that my conscience is clear... I greet you all and will wait for you at our Father's house. I greet all brothers in Bruczków and all my friends. God bless you. Be good Catholics. Forgive me everything, please. I am very sorry for my beloved old Mother. God be with you. See you in heaven. Please, give my cassock back to Bruczków after the war."
In the memory of the old priests and religious brothers Br. Grzegorz remained a wonderful man, an excellent Divine Word missionary who possessed the greatest love - ready to give up his life for his neighbours.
Pope John Paul II beatified him on 13 June 1999 with a group of the 108 Martyrs of World War Two known also as 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs.
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Kategoria: Święci i Błogosławieni - teksty ENG
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Opublikowano: piątek, 12 czerwiec 2009 15:37
Fr. Alojzy Liguda, SVD was born on January 23rd 1898 in Winów, a village in the region of Opole. He was the seventh child of Wojciech and Rozalia Przybyła. The atmosphere in the house was deeply religious and this influenced Alojzy. He learned prudence and a sense for thorough and quiet fulfillment of duties from his mother, and diligence together with an interest in the active parish life from his father who was an organizer and guide of the pilgrimages to Wambierzyce and to the sanctuary on Mount St.Anne.
Alojzy started primary school education when he was six. It was earlier than the other children usually started. He obtained very good grades at school. Educated in an atmosphere where everyone was a dedicated Christian he was seized with a desire to work in the service of the Church. He first learned about mission countries from religious magazines and became interested in China and Africa.
He was admitted to the minor seminary of the Divine Word Missionaries in Nysa at the age of fifteen. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. He was called up in 1917 and sent to the French front as a gunner. During the war he did not loose his religious spirit, firmly installed in him by his upbringing and seminary education. After the war he rejoined the seminary and finished his secondary education passing the final examinations in 1920. Then he entered the noviciate of the Divine Word Missionaries at St.Gabriel’s House in Mödling near Vienna. The first Silesian Insurrection broke out about that time. Alojzy took the event very seriously and suffered on its account, especially since he had first-hand reports in the letters from his father who was persecuted for supporting the Polish cause.
After the noviciate Alojzy was sent to Pieniezno for teacher’s training. He was appointed as a Latin and mathematics teacher in the minor seminary there. Then, he returned to St. Gabriel to complete his further education. Dogmatics and Church history were his favourite subjects, but he attained very good marks at the other subjects, too.
He was ordained to the priesthood on May 26th, 1927 at St.Gabriel’s and said his first mass at the Holy Cross Church in Opole. Traditionally masses in that particular church were also celebrated partly in Polish. He dreamt about missions in China or New Guinea but was appointed to the Polish Province instead. Alojzy accepted it joyfully and arrived in Poland in autumn 1928. He stayed at the Provincial House in Górna Grupa for a short period of time and was sent for further studies. The province needed highly qualified teachers. After validating his secondary education certificate he was accepted to the Polish Philology Faculty, University of Poznań. He finished his studies defending his thesis ”Gallus Anonymus, an intellectual and writer”. While in Poznań he also worked as a chaplain and religious education teacher at the Ursuline Sisters school for girls in Sporna Street. He tried to popularize Pope Pius XI’s encyclical About the Christian Education in his classes and sermons. When he was about to leave Poznań the sisters and students persuaded him to publish all that material. He did that in a small book called Audi filia „not only to remind them of their time at school but also to refresh the old ideals and reinvigorate them with religious thoughts”. The book was well received by the youth and pastors. Answering an insistent demand of his young readers and priests Fr. Liguda wrote another book of conferences and sermons called Go forward and higher. It was received with great approval. He wrote: "I am thankful to the Providence so much because God led me to see the world I could not even imagine I would ever be able to see - the world of child’s soul”. These two books contain Fr. Liguda’s deep reflections on the role of women and challenges facing them. They had been sparked by the words from the Scripture: Si scires donum Dei.
Fr. Liguda published also Bread and Salt, a book of homilies for each Sunday of the liturgical year. Fr. Alojzy’s personality was reflected in that book very vividly. Referring to Jesus’ words „I left my Father and I came down to earth” Fr. Liguda wrote: „I need only one thing - to remember His words and to strengthen myself by them. They will save me from sadness and defend me from all despair. I will keep my head high in spite of humiliations and failures. Yes, it is possible to ill-treat me, but it is impossible to humiliate me! Revolutions can erase all my diplomas and titles, but nobody can take God’s sonship away from me. I can rot in jail, or freeze to death in Solovki, but I will always repeat the most beautiful words Exivi a Patre, and God will always be my Father”. Later on, when he was in the concentration camp, that attitude became his source of optimism, joy, strength and hope. Even in the worst circumstances he felt he was God’s son.
After his arrival at Górna Grupa Fr. Liguda took up a job as Polish and history teacher in the lower forms of the minor seminary. He ministered as chaplain to the garrison in Grupa on Sundays. During school breaks and vacations he was busy organizing and conducting parish retreats or group retreats in the house in Górna Grupa.
Fr. Liguda was appointed the rector of the Górna Grupa house in June 1939. After the outbreak of the Second World War the Nazi invaders turned the house into an internment camp for about eighty priests and seminarians brought there on October 28th, 1939 from the dioceses of Chełmno, Włocławek and Gniezno. In his book Klechy w obozach Fr. Malak wrote: „Fr. Rector Liguda welcomed us. His robust figure, clothed in a cassock, moved courageously and resolutely among the Blackshirts. That gave us courage. In the following days he always cheered us up with his great friendliness and a good sense of humor. Everybody liked to see him because he was like a prophet. He warmed us like the sun. He passed through the room like an angel of peace with a good word at his lips”.
People expected that the priests would be released. Meantime, on November 11th, 1939 fifteen priests and two seminarians from the diocese of Włocławek were taken away. Fr. Liguda’s mediation to keep them in Górna Grupa was fruitless. They were taken to a forest on the nearby military exercise ground and shot. Fr. Liguda tried to console the distressed priests who stayed in the house and give them a new hope. But he himself was fully aware how dangerous the situation was. A picture which he sent to his family for Christmas that year was very significant - Christ taking up his cross followed by priests doing the same.
Martyrdom
The internees were taken away to Nowy Port in Gdansk, a branch of the Stutthof concentration camp on February 5th, 1940. In a situation darkened by starvation, hard work and beating Fr. Liguda soon became ‘a good angel’. Fr. Liguda contributed a lot to organizing a secret celebration of Holy Mass on Maundy Thursday. The Holy Communion received during that Mass became a viaticum for many prisoners.
Fr. Liguda together with a group of prisoners was moved to a camp in Grenzdorf, and then to Sachsenhausen via Stutthof in the first days of April 1940. The prisoners were unanimous in their opinion that they exchanged purgatory for hell. Fr. Liguda was more fortunate than the others. Because of his excellent knowledge of German he was appointed for the room service and to teach German. One of his students described a lesson in the following words: „It began by Fr. Liguda setting a look-out at the windows so that we could be warned about approaching SS-men. Then, he would tell us funny stories - he knew millions of them - or report something he learnt himself, or one of the priests would share his knowledge with us. However, Fr. Liguda was not immune to being tortured by the camp authorities. I remember well how he trembled after having received ten blows of an iron-bar for stopping for a while during work.”
There was a moment when it seemed that Fr. Liguda would be released. He was called to the doctor. Quite often that was a sign of coming freedom. He was taken to the Dachau concentration camp instead on December 14th, 1940. They gave him the camp-number 22 604. It was discovered after the war that Fr. Liguda could really have been released from the camp. The SVD Superior General tried to secure his release through the nunciature in Berlin. His family also tried hard to get him out of the camp. Answering these requests the Gestapo made the following statement: „Fr. Liguda declared that he was Polish and in future he would like to work in Poland.” They added that as a Polish intellectual he had to be insulated from the society for the time of the war. In spite of that there were some strong points favouring his release: his family had German citizenship, he himself was a soldier in the German army, his brothers, soldiers in the same army, were killed during the First World War. In addition, the protestant pastor from Górna Grupa stood up in Fr. Liguda’s defense reminding that Fr. Alojzy had saved him, his family and a protestant deaconess from the anger of the local people after the German invasion of Poland. Earlier, that same pastor saved Fr. Liguda’s life when he might have been executed as a hostage. Fr. Liguda did not want to change his deep convictions even for the price of freedom
Various methods of oppressing the prisoners were practiced in Dachau. Limitless marching and singing songs was one of them. Fr. Liguda had sometimes to lead these marches. Witnesses said that in such situations he knew how to find a spot where they could not be seen by trusties for some time. He pretended to explain the text of a song, or to practice it but used that occasion to tell jokes to cheer up the prisoners.
An epidemic of itching broke out in January 1941. All those affected were gathered in one barrack. That meant that about one thousand prisoners were cramped together in a place designed for four hundred. They wore only thin undergarment, lied on straw mattresses and covered themselves with blankets. It was freezing outside but the windows had to be open all day long. Starvation was killing the sick, too. Fr. Liguda tried to dispel that awful hopelessness by his stories - „he did not give in to despair”. Everyday hundreds of dead were taken away but he strived to encourage hope in the rest. He returned to his own block and was assigned to a transportation group. Rogler, one of the cruelest foremen, was his direct superior. Rogler always gave the hardest jobs to his group and did not tolerate any break. Fr. Liguda’s strength, weakened by the ‘anti-itch therapy’, began to deteriorate visibly.
One day a Russian prisoner smoked a cigarette at work. That was considered a big crime. A witness described what followed: ”Rogler appeared out of the blue. The cigarette was stubbed out already but one could still smell smoke. ‘Who smoked?’, Rogler asked Fr. Liguda. The intensity of the moment was incredible. To say ”It was not me” meant betraying others. Fr. Alojzy took the blame on himself. ”I did”, he answered. Furious foreman took him to his room. Swollen face and a bruise under his left eye were the proof of the punishment. The tired torturer checked Fr. Liguda’s clothes. ”Where are your cigarettes?”, he asked. ”I do not have any”, Fr. Liguda answered. ”You are a priest, you scum, and you lie? You have confessed your guilt already”. ”I smoked but not today.”, Fr. Liguda answered. The tortures stopped when the guilty one eventually confessed but Rogler remembered Fr. Liguda very well because of that incident.
As a result of ill-treatment and earlier weakening of the body Fr. Liguda showed the symptoms of tuberculosis. He was taken to hospital. The conditions were much better there. He could receive parcels from his family. In effect he recovered quite quickly. Unfortunately, he was labeled as a disabled person, which in the camp equaled a death sentence. He was aware of that. His letter written a month before his death can bear witness to that: ”My Mother will be eighty four soon. I wish her long life. I would not like her to know that she outlived her youngest son. It would be a tragedy for her. Personally I think that I will return home. It is possible, however, that Providence will lead me through many dangers in order to enrich me spiritually...”
He told a camp’s scribe: ”If you hear about my death you should know that they killed a healthy man”. In an account given by one of the hospital attendants the whole group of ten people was brutally drowned. A convincing message was passed from ear to ear in the camp that due to a cruel intervention of the block-man from No. 29 strips of skin were cut out of Fr. Liguda’s body before he was drowned. It might have been a revenge of that foreman because Fr. Liguda reprimanded him on several occasions for unjust distribution of food and for harming patients. Angered, the foreman put Fr. Liguda on the disabled list. Fr. Liguda could have died a horrible death because the foreman of the sick-room, who took part in the execution, told his friends later that he would not ever like to do such things again.
Fr. Alojzy Liguda, an earnest devotee of the Immaculate Conception died on the night of December 8th, 1942, the very feast of Our Lady. His mother received the following notification of his death: „Your son, Alojzy Liguda, born 23rd January, 1898, died of tuberculosis in our hospital on December 8th, 1942.” They lied to his old mother since the cause of her son’s death was not a disease but human cruelty.
His fellow-prisoners remembered him as a man of God. ”He helped the other priests very much during his work in the room-service especially those in need, weak and old... he cared for us.... he was a saint...” He was a true apostle of humor and optimism. One day he wrote: ”We do our duty as the citizens of the present day.” He tried to fulfil his pastoral duty even towards those who persecuted him. He did not avoid provocative discussions with atheists, communists and foremen, and even with the commander himself picking up their ‘biblical disputes’ which mocked religion and priesthood. ”He closed the mouth of many atheists simply by his higher spiritual and intellectual level and by his morals which were beyond reproach. Of course, getting rid of him became a matter of honour. He had something that made him our leader; the priests were seeking his friendship. Fr. Liguda really led us in Dachau... He was a saint! For me he was simply the sign of security. He was like a fortress, always calm, self-assured, and always joyful, with a shadow of a smile on his face... The Nazis beat him the same as us - because he was scum, just like we were, but on the other hand they respected him. When he spoke with them it was always to the point and he never used us to achieve his own interests. When he became the one responsible for our room-service and distributed bread our big eyes of the starved could see that he was honest in distribution; a real God's priest. Through all these years in the concentration camp we were not always together, but befriended him and he became a moral support for me. He was always like a father. He was a saint. One day during the evening roll-call I heard his number among those to be taken away in the morning transport. That evening I paid him a visit. I cried telling him good-bye and he stood before me silent, joyful, looking as if coming from another reality and repeating ‘God knows everything’.”
Pope John Paul II beatified him on 13 June 1999 with a group of the 108 Martyrs of World War Two known also as 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs.
[1] Solovki - a Russian concentration camp on the isle of Solovki above the Polar Circle; set up about 1920 in a former Orthodox monastery became a place of incarceration for many political prisoners. [Translator’s footnote].
Popieramy pluralizm w teologii, duchowości programach formacyjnych i strukturach ucząc się w ten sposób głębiej i bogaciej przeżywać naszą międzynarodowość.
Bezżeństwo realizujemy we wspólnocie. Znaczy to, iż staramy się o prawdziwie braterską wspólnotę, która stwarza atmosferę rodzinnego domu, umożliwia głębokie przyjaźnie, pozwala znaleźć dopełnienie w pracy oraz rozwinięcie talentów.
Współbracia przeznaczani są do pracy misyjnej według zasad względnej międzynarodowości. O ile to możliwe staramy się, by współbracia nie pracowali samotnie, lecz zawsze w dwóch lub więcej razem. W naszych wspólnotach posługujemy się językiem kraju, w którym pracujemy.
Jako członkowie Zgromadzenia Słowa Bożego uważamy za swój obowiązek: głosić Słowo Boże wszystkim ludziom, tworzyć nowe wspólnoty Ludu Bożego, zabiegać o ich wzrost, jaki o ich łączność między sobą i z Kościołem powszechnym. Na pierwszym miejscu i przede wszystkim pracujemy tam, gdzie Ewangelii jeszcze w ogóle nie głoszono, albo głosi się ją w niedostatecznym stopniu, albo gdzie Kościół miejscowy sam nie jest jeszcze zdolny do życia. Wszystkie inne zadania staramy się ukierunkować na te pierwszorzędne cele.
