Today, 12 June, we celebrate the liturgical memorial of the martyrs, Blessed Franciszek Kesy and his four companions. These young lay men were members of the Salesian Family.

One of the main theological and pastoral ideas of Pope St. John Paul II was that the concrete example offered to the faithful by the sanctity of the lives of saints and blessed raised by him to the honours of the altar, constitutes real evangelisation. Among these there are five pupils of the Salesian oratory in Poznan: Ceslao Józwiak (1919-1942), Edward Kazmierski (1919-1942), Franciszek Kesy (1920-1942), Edward Klinik (1919-1942) and Jarogniew Wojciechowski (1922 -1942).

These young people, familiarly known as the Poznan five, were arrested by the Nazis on 21 and 23 September 1940 for their activities within the National Organisation of Combat and their commitment to pastoral work at the Salesian Church of Mary Help of Christians in Poznan. They were imprisoned in Poznan, Wronki, Berlin and Zwickau and were executed by guillotine in Dresden on 24 August 1942.

In the church of Mary Help of Christians in Poznan the five are venerated as intercessors on behalf of young people who have moved away from God and the Church, imploring for them the grace to return to Christ. In the young martyrs we can see representatives of the ideals of young people from Catholic schools with the vision and the strong desire to serve their country with dedication in all areas of life, in the name of God's love. They are the most convincing proof of the validity of Salesian education.

For today's youth, Ceslao, Edward, Franciszek, Edward and Jarogniew are models for their defence of the value of life and the dignity of the person, and their opposition to false ideologies. Today's false ideologies include racism, fanaticism, absolutism of the state, discrimination, and exploitation of the poorest and most vulnerable. These were young men who staked their whole lives on God, and on Jesus and his Gospel, as the source of happiness and lif