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BLESSEDS MICHAŁ TOMASZEK AND ZBIGNIEW STRZAŁKOWSKI, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS - 9 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 9th of August

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BLESSEDS MICHAŁ TOMASZEK AND ZBIGNIEW STRZAŁKOWSKI, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS

Michał Tomaszek, Zbigniew Strzałkowski and Alessandro Dordi were killed by the guerrillas of Shining Path, Peru’s Maoist insurgency. They were targeted because of their pastoral work among the inhabitants of the Andes and the assistance they granted to those in need.

In August 1991, the guerrillas escalated their violence against the Roman Catholic Church and announced that they would kill a priest every week in the Diocese of Chimbote. 

THEY ESCALATED THEIR VIOLENCE AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The first priest they picked out luckily escaped execution.

On August 9, they abducted two Polish friars from the church at the end of the evening's Eucharistic celebration. After a brief show trial, they were led out of the village and killed near the cemetery, along with the local mayor. On August 25, they ambushed the car in which Father Alessandro Dordi was travelling to a church and executed him after he got out of the vehicle.

THEY AMBUSHED FR ALESSANDRO'S CAR

Michał Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzałkowski arrived in Peru two years earlier and were based in Pariacoto, the Diocese of Chimbote. They were 31 and 33 years of age respectively at the time of death.

"OUT OF HATRED FOR RELIGION"

Abimael Guzman, founder and leader of Shining Path, now serving a life sentence, confessed in a conversation with a Peruvian bishop: "I ordered to kill those Polish missionaries out of hatred for religion. I thought then that it was the opium of the people. That’s what I thought and now I plead for forgiveness." 

Excerpts from Radio Poland's report of the beatification ceremony

PRAYER:

Grant to your Church, we beseech you, O Lord, through the intercession of your holy martyrs Michał and Zbigniew not to think high-mindedly, but to grow in humility pleasing to you; that, despising what is base, she may with unbounded love diligently do whatever is right. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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