Blessed Joseph Kowalski,

priest and martyr

Joseph Kowalski was born on 19 March 1911 at Siedliska (Poland). From an early age he showed signs of a vocation to dedicating himself to God in a special way. In 1927, after having finished at the Salesian secondary school in Oswiecim, he was accepted in the Novitiate of the Salesian Congregation. Even as a cleric he had a spiritual desire, which he recorded in his notebook: 'to suffer and to be despised for you, Lord.' After having completed the various stages of formation, he was ordained priest in 1938 and immediately he was engaged in educative pastoral work in the Salesian house at Krakow.

On 23 May 1941, with other Salesians he was arrested by the Nazi and taken to the concentration camp at Oswiecim (Auschwitz). Also in this place he lived his life as a priest: through his ministry and personal witness he brought hope to his companions in suffering. He was martyred on 4 July 1942, a victim of hatred for religion and for the faith. The immediate cause for his martyrdom was his refusal to trample on his rosary beads.

Pope John Paul II beatified him on 13 June 1999 in Warsaw, with a group of 108 Polish martyrs, victims of the Nazi persecution during the second world war.

O God, who raised up in the priest Blessed Joseph the desire for holiness and the readiness to offer his life for the love of Christ, grant to us, through his intercession, the grace to be faithful to our vocation and to love the cross, which is the way of salvation. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.