Bronislaus Markiewicz was born on 13 July 1842 in Pruchnik in Galicia (southern Poland), sixth of eleven children, to a religious lower middle class family. He knew what it was to face hunger, poverty and persecution, and when we became a priest in 1867, he strongly felt called to help the poor, espesially the youngest, which led him to Don Bosco in Italy.

He asked to be a member of the Salesian Congregation and in 1887 he made his perpetual vows before Don Bosco himself. He therefore had the good fortune to listen to the saint's recommendations and to assimilate his spirit directly.

In 1892 he returned to Poland as a Salesian, where he devoted himself to poor and abandoned youth. To respond in the best possible way to the concrete needs of the poor in Galicia, Bronislaus felt the need to live Don Bosco's principles more radically and, advised by his collaborators, he founded the Work and Temperance Society. Nine years after his death, the society, in its male and female branches, was recognized by the Church giving rise to two Congregations placed under the protection of St Michael the Archangel. Its members took the name of Michaelites.

He died in Miejsce Piestowe, Poland, on 29 January 1912, and was beatified on 19 June 2005 under the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

His memorial is celebrated on 30 January.

For more biographical information and downloadable resources, visit sdb.org