Monday, March 18, 2024

SAINT OF DACHAU

 

Unlike our previous saints for Lent, ST. TITUS BRANDSMA was not Polish. He was born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma to Titus Brandsma and his wife Tjitsje Postma at Oegeklooster, near Hartwerd, in the Province of Friesland in 1881. His parents, who ran a small dairy farm, were devout and committed Catholics, a minority in a predominantly Calvinist region. With the exception of one daughter, all of their children (three daughters and two sons) entered religious orders.

 From age 11, the future saint was educated at a preparatory school for boys who were studying for the priesthood. He joined the Carmelite novitiate in 1898, taking the name Titus in honor of his father.

In the years following his 1905 ordination, he received a doctorate in philosophy and initiated a project to translate the works of St Teresa of Avila into Dutch. One of the founders of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, he served as a professor of philosophy and the history of mysticism at the school. While there he was known more for his availability to faculty and students than for his academic achievements. He later served as rector magnificus (1932–33).

 In 1935 he traveled for a lecture tour of the United States and Canada, speaking at various institutions of his order. On the occasion of his visit to a Carmelite seminary in Niagara Falls, Ontario, he wrote of the falls that "I not only see the riches of the nature of the water, its immeasurable potentiality; I see God working in the work of his hands and the manifestation of his love.”

 Working as a journalist, Father Brandsma served as ecclesiastical advisor to Catholic journalists. His long-standing opposition to Nazi ideology came to the attention of the Nazis when they invaded the Netherlands in 1940. In direct opposition to the Third Reich, the Conference of Dutch Bishops sent a letter ordering Catholic newspaper editors not to print Nazi propaganda. Father Brandsma was arrested while hand delivering the letter in January 1942. After being imprisoned in several other facilities, in June he was taken to the Dachau camp in Germany.

During his brief time at Dachau Father Brandsma was well-known for his kindness and spiritual support of other prisoners. His death on July 26, 1942 was a result of the Reich’s program of medical experimentation on prisoners. He gave a wooden rosary to the nurse who administered the fatal injection. She later became Catholic and testified to his holiness. In recent years St. Titus has been honored by both the cities of Nijmegen and Dachau. He was beatified in 1985, and canonized in 2022.

In 2005, St. Titus was chosen by the inhabitants of Nijmegen as the greatest citizen to have lived there. A memorial church dedicated to him now stands in the city.

 The saint’s studies on mysticism was the basis for the establishment in 1968 of the Titus Brandsma Institute in Nijmegen, dedicated to the study of spirituality. It is a collaboration between the Dutch Carmelite friars and Radboud University Nijmegen.

 In his biography of St. Titus, The Man behind the Myth, Dutch journalist Ton Crijnen claims that the saint's character consisted of some vanity, a short temper, extreme energy, political innocence, true charity, unpretentious piety, thorough decisiveness, and great personal courage.

His ideas were very much those of his own age and modern as well. He offset contemporary Catholicism's negative theological opinion about Judaism with a strong disaffection for any kind of antisemitism in Hitler's Germany.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

A CHURCH OF MERCY IN WAR



During Lent I have presented martyrs who died at the hands of the Nazis in WWII, many were priests who refused to abandon their flocks.  
Today we see the same situation in Ukraine, with priests who have stayed behind to care for the spiritual- and in many cases physical- needs of their people. The Church has become a symbol of concrete mercy. 

Due to the war in Ukraine, almost 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes. Almost 4 million have become internally displaced persons (IDPs), and another six million persons have taken refuge in another country, with Poland and Germany taking the lion’s share of those refugees.

Men between 18-60 had to remain in the country for possible deployment in the military, which means most of the refugees have been women, children and elderly. 

 The Church and many Catholic orders of religious men and women are still aiding refugees, physically and emotionally, as well as spiritually. Many feel the West has forgotten their plight as the war drags on and other tragedies take precedence in the news.

Ukrainian Father Oleksandr Zelinskyi of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and director of EWTN Ukraine since 2017, says that “hope is something that helps us carry on, to work, to live, believing that God can change even the worst for the good. And there are many people bearing witness that faith and trust in God helps them in these difficult times.”

Father Zelinskyi said the people are very grateful to all those in the world who continue to pray for Ukraine. He feels that the act of consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary carried out by Pope Francis in March 2022, “did some good, because after this consecration the Russians had to leave the Kiev region. And I believe it was possible thanks to the providence of God.”

We know from local friends that the Knights of Columbas are still supplying goods  to families in need through their Charity Convoy.  Over a million pounds of food has been delivered to Ukrainian families through this charitable mission. In Solidarity with Ukrainean inspiring new film from the Knights of Columbus, gives a vivid example of what it means to be a Christian disciple in the midst of war, and how the light of the Gospel continues to shine in the darkness.

While we are unable to physically be present to the people of this war-torn country, who continue to amaze us by their strength and courage, we can pray, and daily we do!

Saturday, March 16, 2024

BROTHER MARTYRS

 

BLESSED STEFAN GRELEWSKI born in 1899 in Dwikozy, Swietokrzyskie, Poland was the older brother of Blessed Kazimierz Grelewski. He studied at the Progimnazjum in Sandomierz and Lubartów in Poland.

 Ordained in October 1921 as a priest in the archdiocese of Radom, Poland, he graduated with a doctorate in canon law in Strasbourg, France in 1924. He then was general secretary of the Christian Workers Union in Radom in 1925.

 Writer and journalist, he published in “Kurier Warszawski”, “Nation’s Word”, “Catholic Guide” and “Priestly Athenaeum.” He founded the magazine Catholic Truth. He is the author of the book “Confessions and Religious Sects in Contemporary Poland”.and translated works from French and German to Polish.

He was prefect of a boy‘s elementary school from 1928 through 1931 and  of the Jan Kochanowski state boy‘s grammar school from 1932 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

He worked with the people of Catholic Action and the Association of Polish Intelligence, and helped organize the first diocesan Eucharistic Congress in Radom in 1933.

 During World War II, together with his brother Blessed Kazimierz (nine years younger) he taught religion in secret. Both were arrested in 1941as part of the Nazi persecutions and sent to concentration camps in Auschwitz and Dachau.

He died of starvation on 9 May 1941 in the camp hospital of Dachau. He was beatified with his brother in the group of 108 martyrs of World War II in 1999.

 

BLESSED KAZIMIERZ GRELEWSKI was the younger brother of Bl. Stefan. He was born 1907 in Dwikozy near Sandomierz. His parents were Michał and Eufrozyna née Jarzyna.

He graduated from primary school in the Wysokie Mountains and received his secondary school certificate after graduating from high school in Sandomierz. In 1923 he entered the Sandomierz Theological Seminary, and in August 1929 he was ordained a priest by Bishop Paweł Kubicki.

 He was head of the primary school, devoting thirteen years to this work, until his arrest in January 1941. During the war, he taught secret classes and conducted religion classes in public schools as well as devoting himself to charity work. He took care of an orphanage established for children - war victims. 

In January 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo along with his brother, Father  Stefan. He was taken to the prison on Kościuszki Street, where he was tortured,  transported to the prison in Skarżysko-Kamienna, and then by rail to the concentration camp in Oświęcim, where he received the number 10443.

In April 1941, he was transported to the Dachau camp (no. 25280), where he lost his brother. He then wrote to the family that Stefan died in his arms.

Witnesses of his anguish reported that one day in the Dachau camp "a kapo struck him and knocked him down to earth." Father Kazimierz rose, made a sign of the cross from the attacker and said: "God forgive you." After these words, the kapo attacked him, again  and shouted: "I will send you to your God in a moment." He  died on January 9, 1942 by hanging on the camp gallows, and at the last moment he called to the executioners: "Love God!


Monday, March 11, 2024

MORE CONNECTIONS- IN LENT

 

In doing research in our previous blog about Bl. Nikolaus Gross, I discovered SERVANT OF GOD EUGEN BOLZ.  Interestingly enough he was the uncle of one of our dear friends in the Vatican, Cardinal Augustin Mayer, OSB (Abbey at Metten) and his sister, who once stayed at our Abbey in CT.

Born in Rottenburg am Neckar in1881 of a Catholic family, Eugen was his parents' twelfth child.  His father Joseph Bolz was a salesman, his mother was Maria Theresia Bolz (née Huber). He joined the Windhorstbund, the youth organization of the Center Party, at an early age.

He studied law in Tubingon and in 1919  became Württemberg's minister of justice, and a few years later was appointed minister of the interior. He was married to Maria Hoeness, with whom he had a daughter.

 In 1928, the center-right coalition elected him president of Württemberg. Eugen supported the policies of Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning*, but he underestimated the NSDAP's political goals in late 1932 and only clearly spoke out against Hitler in early 1933.

 On March 11, 1933 the National Socialists dissolved his government. In June 1933 Eugen himself was taken into "Schutzhaft" ("protective custody") for several weeks. In spite of this, he maintained contact with his political friends from the disbanded Center Party, the outlawed Social Democratic Party, and the earlier liberal German State Party.

Later he also volunteered to work with Carl Goerdeler and was to be given the office of a minister following the coup attempt of July 20, 1944. Eugen Bolz was arrested on August 12, 1944. He was sentenced to death by the People's Court on December 21, 1944, (Photo to right) and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on January 23, 1945.

 One wonders if he knew Bl. Nikalaus Gross and how many other "holy" people in prison?


*(Another connection- When the mother one of our nuns at Regina Laudis died I went with her to her family home in Vermont. Her father annd I got along very well and before I left to return to the Abbey, he told me I could have anything in the house I wanted.  I chose a very small metal placque on the wall, not knowing the value to the family.  It was given to them by ex-Chancellor Bruning  when he stayed with them after fleeing Nazi Germany. I hade the medal for years turning it over to a younger nun when I came west to OLR.)


(Photo of monument in Stuttgart)

Saturday, March 9, 2024

DOMINICAN BLESSED-WWII

 

BLESSED MARIA JULIA  (nee Stanislawa) RODZINSKA, OP was born on 16 March 1899 in Nawojowa, Poland. She was one of five children of  Michał and Marianna (Sekuła).  Michal was an organist for the parish church, a talented composer and man-of-all-trades who took on various jobs to make ends meet. His wife Marianna helped where she could, but a long-term illness took her life when Stanislawa was only 8 years old. Times must have been tough for the whole family(two boys and two girl), as Michal battled rheumatism in his fight to provide for his children. Two years later, Michal died, leaving Stanislawa and her 3 siblings orphans.

At the age of ten the future blessed and her four year old sister became wards of the Dominican Sisters in Nawojowa.  The two boys were taken in by relatives.

 After finishing school there, she started studies in the Teachers' Seminar in Nowy Sącz, but didn't complete them because she began her religious formation in Wielowieś, entering the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Dominika in Tarnobrzeg-Wielowieś. After her vows in 1924 she completed her interrupted education.

 As a qualified teacher, she carried out her ministry in Mielżyn, Rawa Ruska and Vilnius (now Lithuania) for 22 years.

 From 1934, she was the superior of the house in Vilnius, also running an orphanage. As a teacher, she knew how to motivate her class and strengthen her weaker students.  To her, it was particularly important to impart to them a love for the Rosary and the Eucharist. 

After the outbreak of World War II, she secretly taught Polish language, history and religion, and conducted humanitarian activities.

She also assisted the archbishop in saving Jews from capture by the Gestapo and provided for retired priests who otherwise would have been left impoverished.

 On 12 July 1943, Sister Julia was jailed by the Gestapo in Łukiszki prison in Vilnius. In a year, she was sent to the German concentration camp Stutthof, registered as number 40992. There she was subjected to torture, isolation and humiliation.

 Sr. Julia was assigned to the Jewish part of the Stutthof, where conditions were particularly cruel.  Although such activities were forbidden, she led prayer groups and even arranged for a priest prisoner to come on a “work assignment” to hear Confessions.

 Due to the inhumane conditions of concentration camps, prisoners often lost their sense of morality for the sake of their own survival.  However, Sr. Julia jeopardized her own life to show mercy to her fellow prisoners in the dark and tormenting cruelty of Stutthof. 

 When the typhus epidemic came to Stuthoff in November of 1944, Sr. Julia would go to the bedside of the sick and give what comfort and treatment she could.  Fellow prisoners testify that she was a source of strength for them by her example of piety and charity. 

 Sister Julia died of exhaustion and disease on 20 February 1945 in Stutthof, two months before the concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army. Her naked body was discarded on a pile of corpses, but someone honored her by placing a little cloth over her body. The words of those who survived Bl. Julia perhaps tell it best: “Not only Catholic compatriots mourned her death, but also Russians, Latvians, and others.” The Jewish women did not hesitate to call Sr. Julia a martyr and a saint. “She gave her life for others, died sacrificing herself; she was the Angel of goodness.”

 In 1999, she was proclaimed blessed by Pope St. John Paul II in the group of 108 Blessed Martyrs. Her feast is February 20.

 

Friday, March 8, 2024

WOMEN OF THE CHURCH

 

Today is INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY and yesterday the Holy Father met with a group in the international conference of “WOMEN IN THE CHURCH: BUILDERS OF HUMANITY”. Here are some of his words, with emphasis on modern saints, as an example to all women of the Church, striving for holiness.

 


“Your Conference highlights in particular the witness of holiness of ten women. I would like to mention them by name: Josephine Bakhita, Magdeleine de Jesus, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mary MacKillop, Laura Montoya, Kateri Tekakwitha, Teresa of Calcutta, Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès, Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi and Daphrose Mukasanga.

 All these women, at different times and in different cultures, each in her own distinct way, gave proof through initiatives of charity, education and prayer, of how the “feminine genius” can uniquely reflect God’s holiness in the midst of our world. Indeed, precisely at times in history when women were largely excluded from social and ecclesial life, the “Holy Spirit raised up saints whose attractiveness produced new spiritual vigor and important reforms in the Church.

 Here too, "I think of all those unknown or forgotten women who, each in her own way, sustained and transformed families and communities by the power of their witness” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 12). The Church needs to keep this in mind, because the Church is herself a woman: a daughter, a bride and a mother. And who better than women can reveal her face? Let us help one another, putting aside any aggressive and divisive attitudes, and exercising careful discernment, to discover, in docility to the voice of the Spirit and in faithful communion, fitting ways for the grandeur and the place of women to be increasingly valued in the People of God."


Thursday, March 7, 2024

A FAMILY MAN- MARTYR

 

Another lay martyr of WWII was BL. NIKOLAUS GROSS, who was born near Essen, Germany. He first worked in crafts requiring skilled labor before becoming a coal miner like his father while joining a range of trade union and political movements. But he finally settled on becoming a journalist.

His work with the unions took him throughout Germany and he eventually settled in the Ruhr Valley. There, he married his wife, Elizabeth, and the couple had seven children. He was a devoted father who tried to raise his children to be good Catholics and faithful citizens.

Bl. Nikolaus became aware of the political movements within Germany, including the rise of Adolf Hitler. As the Nazis came to power, he served as the editor of a German workers’ newspaper and was able to give voice to his Catholic faith as he tried to address the complicated political realities of his day.

 In 1930 he wrote, “As Catholic workers, we reject Nazism not only for political and economic reasons, but decisively also, resolutely and clearly, on account of our religious and cultural attitude.”

 Because of his strong stance, he was marked as an “enemy of the state” and became a target of the Nazis.

In 1940 he endured interrogations and house searches since he was being monitored at the time. On 12 August 1944 he was arrested sometime towards noon in connection with the failed plot to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. He was first taken to Ravensbrück and then to Berlin at the Tegel prison (from September 1944) where his wife visited him twice and reported the torture done to a hand and both his arms.

His letters from prison testify to his spirit of prayer and dedication to his family.

He was executed on January 23, 1945. The priest who was with him at the time of his death testified, “Gross bowed his head silently during the blessing. His face already seemed illuminated by the glory into which he was getting ready to enter.” His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered at a sewage plant. He died soon after the Servant of God Eugen Bolz who was imprisoned in the same prison.

 He was beatified in 2001 by Pope St. John Paul II. His feast is January 15.

“If we do not risk our life today, how then do we want to justify ourselves one day before God and our people.”   Blessed Nikolaus Gross