Patron
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (1901-1981), Primate of Poland and Statesman
He was born on 3rd August in the central part of Poland, on the border of two regions, Mazovia and Podlasie, in the village of Zuzela, where his father was a church organist. During his childhood he moved a few times because of his father’s work.
When he was nine years old, his mother died at the age of 33 after giving birth to her fifth child. The premature death of his mother made a lasting impression on a nine year old boy.
He started his studies for priesthood at the age of 16 at the Lower Seminary and next at the Higher Seminary in Włocławek. He was ordained priest in 1924 but a few months later than his colleagues because of his illness. His postponed ordination took place at the Jasna Góra Sanctuary on his birthday, 3rd August. The young priest was so weak that while celebrating his first mass, he prayed to God to allow him to serve as priest at least one year. Many years later he was recalling those events: ‘I went to Jasna Góra to celebrate my first mass because I wanted to have Mother, the Mother who would never die.'
And God gave him strength not only for the church ministry but also for continuation further studies. He went to Lublin and at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) he studied Canon Law and Economy. In 1929 he received doctor’s degree after defending his Ph.D. thesis: ‘The Rights of the Family, the Church and the State to Education’. The years 1929-1930 Stefan Wyszyński spent abroad studying the development of Catholic social teaching and focused on the Catholic Action and the activity of Christian trade unions in several European countries: Austria Italy,France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany
After he had returned to Poland, he was nominated professor of Canon Law and Sociology at the Włocławek Higher Seminary. At the same time he was dynamically involved in social activity in the Polish Catholic Action, the Christian Trade Union, and giving lectures at the Christian Workers’ University.
In the years of 1932-1939 he was editor-in-chief of the clerical journal Ateneum Kapłańskie. At those times he wrote 106 publications dealing with Catholic social teaching. Some of the titles are: ‘Main Types of the Catholic Action Abroad’ (1931), ‘The Range and the Character of Interests of the Catholic Social Thought’ (1937), ‘The Catholic Programme for Fighting with Communism’ (1937), ‘Love and Justice’ written in 1940 and published in 1993.
When World War II broke out in 1939, at the request of his diocesan superior, Bishop Kozal, he had to leave Włocławek because he was wanted by Germans for his pastoral work he had performed for workers. He went for hiding in different places of the country. Once, while staying in Zakopane, he was arrested with a group of other men by Germans in accidental ‘łapanka’ and after a short time unexpectedly released. Other places of his hiding were Kozłówka (Lubelszczyzna) and Laski near Warsaw, a centre for blind children run by nuns. When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, he became chaplain of the Kampinos unit of the AK (Home Army), the Polish underground resistance organization. He also worked at the Laski hospital, bringing spiritual comfort to wounded insurgents.
After the war he returned to the Seminary in Włocławek in 1945 and became its rector. Just one year later, in 1946, Pope Pius XII nominated him Bishop of Lublin.
On October 22, 1948 the then Primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond died. Three weeks later Bishop Stefan Wyszyński was nominated Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw and
The followers of the Communistic political system, who took over the reign in Poland after the war, started persecutions of not only former members of the Home Army (AK) but also the Church.
From the very beginning of his ministry Archbishop Stefan Wyszyński took a firm stand on defending Chirstian identity of the Polish nation and at the same time he initiated a policy of cautious and prudent relationships with the Communist state authorities. Archbishop Wyszyński decided to enter an agreement with the Communist authorities which was signed on 14 February 1950 by the Bishops of Poland and the government. The Agreement regulated the Church-State relations. Yet already in May of that year the Sejm passed a law for the confiscation of Church property, thus breaching the Agreement.
In January 1953 Archbishop Stefan Wyszyński was nominated cardinal by Pope Pius XII but he was not allowed to go to Rome to receive personally the nomination.
At the beginning of the 50s the Communist government started another wave of persecution. Cardinal Wyszyński held several talks with the government to stop atheistic repressions against the nation and the Church. But it did not give any positive results. Eventually Cardinal Wyszyński together with the Polish Episcopate wrote a famous letter Non possumus to the government voicing also their opposition to state interference in ecclesiastical appointments. Then mass arrests, trials and the internment of priests began. Cardinal Wyszyński also became a victim of the persecution. On 25 September 1953, at night, he was arrested. He was kept imprisoned for three years in different places of Poland: Rywałd Królewski, Stoczek Warmiński, and later placed under house arrest in monasteries in Prudnik near Opole and Komańcza in the Bieszczady Mountains.
While in prison he did not stop thinking of his Christian nation and the Polish Church and never stopped his religious and social work. He was deeply concerned about Poland's future and a thousand years anniversary of the baptism of Poland's first prince, Mieszko, in 966. During the confinement he prepared a programme for great renewal of religious life in Poland under the name:'The Jasna Góra Vows of the Polish Nation'. He elaborated the Great Novenna before the Millenium Celebrations of Poland's Baptism in 1966. Also in prison he wrote a diary which was published abroad after his death as "Prison Notes" (Paris, 1982).
After the death of the Communist government leader, Bolesław Bierut, in March 1956 during his political visit to Moscow and who came to be called the Stalin of Poland, the Krushchev Thaw (de-Stalinisation) began in Poland and the process of releasing political prisoners started. Cardinal Wyszyński was not released until 26 October 1956.
