Bl. Jozef Stanek

  Posted on September 23, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: 4 December 1916 in Lapsze Nizne, Poland 

Died: hanged on 23 September 1944 in a ruined factory in the Solec district of Czerniaków, Poland, body left to hang as an example to others, the chapel in the Warsaw Uprising Museum is named in his honour

Beatified: 13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II in Warsaw, Poland 

Baptized at the age of one day, Jozef was orphaned at age six. He was educated at a Pallottine school in Wadowice, Poland, and in 1935 at age 18, he became a Pallottine novice. Ordained a priest on 7 April 1941, he started his three year ministry in a Poland that was under Nazi occupation and in the middle of World War II. At the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944, Father Jozef served as chaplain to the insurgents, staying in the combat areas to care for and bring the sacraments to those fighting and those who were trapped in the city; given a chance to escape the city, he gave up his seat to an injured man. 

On 22 September 1944, he went to the Nazi authorities to try to negotiate a settlement and save as many lives as possible. Instead of working with him, the Nazis captured, beat and murdered him for being a priest. Martyr.