In a powerful recognition of faith lived to the point of death, Pope Leo XIV has approved the beatification of eleven priests who gave their lives out of “hatred of the faith”—nine Polish Salesians killed in Nazi concentration camps and two Czech diocesan priests executed under the Communist regime of the 1950s.
According to Vatican News, the Holy Father made the decision during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The act formally recognizes the martyrs’ heroic witness in the face of two of the most brutal totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.
Martyrs of Auschwitz and Dachau
The nine Polish Salesians—Jan Świerc, Ignacy Antonowicz, Ignacy Dobiasz, Karol Golda, Franciszek Harazim, Ludwik Mroczek, Włodzimierz Szembek, Kazimierz Wojciechowski, and Franciszek Miśka—were pastors and educators imprisoned and killed simply because they were Catholic priests, according to Vatican News. Their ministry was seen as opposition to Nazi ideology, and they were sent to concentration camps where they endured starvation, torture, and humiliation.
Despite the inhuman conditions, these priests continued to offer “spiritual comfort to their fellow prisoners,” and Vatican News notes that they “remained faithful to their vocation, serenely accepting the risk of being arrested, deported, or killed.” Their martyrdom reflects the deep spiritual resistance of the Polish Church during one of its darkest eras.
Witnesses of Faith under Communism
The decree also recognizes the martyrdom of Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, diocesan priests from Brno in the former Czechoslovakia. Both men were executed during the Communist regime’s systematic persecution of the Church in the early 1950s.
Vatican News recounts how Father Bula was falsely accused of involvement in a violent uprising orchestrated by the state secret police. He was sentenced to death and hanged in 1952. Father Drbola suffered a similar fate, arrested under false pretenses, tortured, and executed the year before. Despite their suffering, they faced their deaths “with faith and trusting abandonment to the will of God,” as Vatican News reported. Their final letters from prison still bear witness to that steadfast trust.
Four New Venerables
In addition to the martyrs, Pope Leo XIV recognized the heroic virtues of four new Venerables:
- María Evangelista Quintero Malfaz, a 17th-century Cistercian nun from Spain who experienced mystical graces and offered her sufferings “as a victim with Christ for the conversion of sinners,” according to Vatican News.
- Father Angelo Angioni, an Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Missionary Institute of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, remembered for his “love for the Lord and zeal to transmit it” through education and missionary work.
- Father José Merino Andrés, a Spanish Dominican whose “fervent preaching and firm hope in divine mercy” inspired hundreds of young men during his ministry.
- Gioacchino of the Queen of Peace, born Leone Ramognino, a Carmelite friar from Italy remembered for his prayerful humility and devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
Their lives of holiness, while not marked by violent death, stand as examples of patient fidelity and joyful charity in service to God and His people.
A Church of Memory and Mission
Through these new Blesseds and Venerables, Pope Leo XIV continues to uphold the witness of those who suffered for the Gospel in the modern age. As Vatican News notes, the martyrs’ unwavering faith in the face of tyranny “reveals the Church’s enduring call to holiness and courage.”
Their stories remind Catholics today that every age brings its own trials—and its own saints. Whether through martyrdom or daily fidelity, the Church continues to proclaim that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
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