BOY SCOUT MARTYR

 

 

BL. STEFAN WINCENTY FRELICHOWSKI was born in 1913 in Chełmża Poland, the third of seven children to the baker Ludwik Frelichowski and Marta Olszewska. 

In 1923 he began his high school studies at Pelpin where in 1927 he was admitted into the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. He joined the scouts the same year, later serving as the troop leader. After he graduated from high school he began studies to become a priest, remaining active in the scouts.

 During his education for the priesthood in Pelpin he was active in the temperance movement and collaborated with Caritas.

 He was ordained in 1937 in the Pelpin Cathedral from Bishop Stanisław Wojciech Okoniewski. He first served the bishop as an aide and then served as a priest in Pelpin and in Toruń before continuing his studies at the Lwów college.

 In Toruń he was responsible for the parish press and vicar of the Assumption parish church. In 1938 he became the leader of the Old Scouts and the chaplain of the scout district of Pomerania. He was known for his devotion to the Sacred Heart.   

 The Gestapo arrested him on 11 September 1939 along with all parish priests in his area. Most of them were released on 12 September, but he was one of those kept back in jail.  Most prabably because of his influence on youth.

On 18 October 1939 and he was imprisoned in the Fort VII camp on a temporary basis before being sent on 8 January 1940 with around 200 prisoners to another camp. On 10 January 1940 he was sent to the concentration camp at Stutthof and then later on 6 April to Grenzdorf and Sachsenhausen before being sent to Dachau as his final destination on 13 December 1940.

Bl. Stefan contracted typhus while tending to prisoners who had the disease and he also contracted pneumonia. He died on 23 February 1945 and his remains were lined in a white sheet decorated with flowers before he was cremated. But before that the prisoner Stanisław Bieniek made a death mask and a cast of the late priest's right hand.

He was beatified in 1999 in Torun, Poland by Pope St. John Paul.  His feast is February 23. He is the patron of Polish scouts.