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| Bl Marian KonopiΕski, Pray for us ! |
Polish Catholic priest, military chaplain, and martyr—murdered on this day in 1943, during pseudo-medical experimentation at Dachau.
Marianus (aka, Marian) was born in 1907 and was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of PoznaΕ, Poland. He served at Holy Archangels Church in Poznan, while he studied social science at the university there. The Nazis invaded Poland starting on September 1, 1939, and that same month, they arrested Fr. Konopinski. After his arrest, the Nazis sent him to different prisons, but ultimately, he ended up in the concentration camp of Dachau in Bavaria in Germany, possibly because it had a special section for imprisoned Catholic clergy.
He died on January 1, 1943, as a result of the pseudo-medical experiments to which he was subjected. His last words to a friend were, "See you in the kingdom of God." Fr. Henryk Kaliszan, a witness to his suffering and death wrote, "Fr. Marian was united with God in prayer. Every day for the first few days, we prayed the Rosary for all different intentions. But after a few days, when the disease was stronger, he could only make pious sighs and [offer] himself as a suffering victim to God."
He was beatified on June 13, 1999, by Bl. Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) in Warsaw as one of the 108 Polish martyrs of Nazism. The group has officially named "The Blessed Anthony Julian Nowowiejski, Henrik Kaczorowski, Anicetus Koplinski and Maria Anna Bier Nacka and their 104 companions." He is No. 36 on the list. His feast day is the day of his death January 1, while the whole group's feast day is 12 June.