Next year, 16 Sisters from the Assembly of Sisters of St. Catherine murdered by russian soldiers in 1945 will be included in the group of blessed. The celebrations will be held on May 31, 2025 in Braniewo close St Catherine's Church – the Assembly presented. This is simply a joyful message for the Archdiocese of Warmia, who is inactive waiting for the announcement of the blessed most prominent bishop and the key form of counter-reformation in Poland and in the planet – Stanisław Hozjusz.
– The date of the beatification of the martyr Sisters was agreed between the Assembly and the Warmia Metropolitan. The next year is 80 years since the end of planet War II and the martyrdom of the Sisters. May 31st is the festival of the Visitation of Our Lady, which is an crucial day for the Assembly of Sisters of St Catherine – said sister Angela Krupinska.
As she added, it will be an extraordinary celebration for the Assembly. –For so many years, it was impossible to talk of the martyr's death of the Sisters, the circumstances and details of death. The trial lasted 20 years and it was not easy to find surviving witnesses and collect all the documents. But we yet did. It's a large joy to have so many blessed in the assembly, it's something extraordinary. – stressed.
Director of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Warmia Fr. prof. Andrzej Kopiczko recalled that the process began on the initiative of the Assembly of Sisters of St. Catherine. –Encouraged by the affirmative completion of the beatification of his founder, Regina Protmann, The assembly took the call of Pope John Paul II to make the martyrdom of the Church with martyrs from the 20th century. Among them were Sisters Catherine, murdered in 1945 by Red Army soldiers. At that time, 16 nuns suffered martyrdom – said PAP president of the Historical Commission in this process Fr. prof. Andrzej Kopiczko.
As he added, on 18 March 2003, Sister Joseph Krause became a postulator for this process, and Archbishop Edmund Piszcz supported the efforts. A affirmative opinion of the Polish Episcopal Conference was then obtained and the Congregation for Saints at the Holy See agreed. On 8 December 2004, the Diocese Court was sworn in in in Braniewo with the promoter of justice Fr.
On 9 December 2006, the process was completed at diocesan level and the documentation, with almost 2,000 pages, was transferred to Rome. Work was besides undertaken to compose a position on the martyrdom of altar candidates.
– The Historical Commission, with the top engagement of Sister Magdalene Krebs, gathered all available sources to make résumés and circumstances of the martyrdom of the Sisters. The Diocese Court, on the another hand, interviewed about 60 witnesses in Poland and Germany, as well as members of the Historical Commission. It reached families of the tortured Sisters and another people who either knew the Sisters or heard of the circumstances of death. –stressed Fr. Prof. Kopiczko.
The clergyman added that the murdered Sisters came from various localities, besides part of the Masuria Diocese of Warmia, but in the vast majority they were Warmiaczki. –In historical Warmia, they had the most of their facilities, so vocations were usually born in towns where they worked effectively as nurses, babysitters in children's homes, or serving in churches – said the priest.
In the Archdiocese of Warmia, the beatification processes of the Servant of God Cardinal Stanislaw Hozjusz (for the longest, for respective decades), the Servant of God Barbara Samulowska (since 2004), the victims of communism Fr Joseph Steinka and companions (since 21 VIII 2007) and the victims of Nazism Fr Bronisław Sochaczewski and companions (also since 21 VIII 2007) are inactive ongoing.
(PAP)/work. FA
