Saints

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko

Before I start off on his life, I want to say that this man **should be a saint**. Please pray that a miracle by him will take action so he can get canonized because he lived an incredible life and there's no doubt in my mind that he should be a saint!!

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko was born on Septemver 14, 1947 on a farm in North Eastern Poland. His parents, Wladyslaw and Mariana, were devout Catholics. He was baptized two days after his birth as Alphons Popieluszko. He was always a frail child he was a strong person. 

Poland was still suffering from aftermath of the Nazis and beginning of communism. As a child, Alphons would walk to his church 3 miles away to serve weekday masses before classes would begin and then after school would come, he'd return to church to pray the Rosary. He was ridiculed for it and told by his teacher that he prayed too much. Because of this, Alphons kept his intention of joining a seminary a secret since he was worried his exams would be altered. Alphons went to a seminary in Warsaw because of the closeness to St. Maximilian Kolbe (Chapter 20) who was his favorite saint. 

Because the Soviets were anti-religious, seminarians had to be in the military for a 2 year tour after one year of the seminary. There was no praying allowed, no studying the bible, and no talking about Jesus or the saints. This was so seminarians forgot about God and wouldn't become a priest. Blessed Jerzy decided to defy this and refused to crush his rosary beneath his heel and cruelly beaten and placed in solitary confinement for almost a month. He prayed out loud and took out prayer books to study. He refused to take a medal off that hung around his neck and had to stand outside at attention without shoes in the freezing rain. He had to crawl around the camp on his hands and knees for saying the rosary. Because of this, Blessed Jerzy was always sick and had to undergo a life threatening surgery to undo the damage done to his heart and kidneys because of the beatings. His ordination had to be delayed but on Mary 28, 1972, he was ordained Fr. Jerzy by Cardinal Wyszynski (who should also be a saint in my opinion)

Fr. Jerzy took care of several small parishes and once collapsed while saying mass. He was given the duty as chaplain for a medical niversity. After a year, he was transferred to his last parish, St. Stanislaus (Chapter 21) in Warsaw. 

Solidarity started rising and a group of workers locked themselves in a shipyard to soldiers couldn't get to them but they proved their point. Three of the men snuck out and asked the Cardinal for a priest to say mass. Thrilled, the Cardinal sent Fr. Jerzy to the group of strikers. The men loved what he was saying and it inspired Fr. Jerzy to do more against the anti-Catholic nonsense that the communists were trying to force upon the Poles. Fr. Jerzy organized a relief effort to help families suffering from loss of jobs, livelihood , or the government having declared martial law. 

When an 18 year old boy was cruelly beaten by Soviet soldiers to the point where his insides were smashed, thousands marched the procession to his burial. This only added more fuel to the Solidarity movement. 

They asked Fr. Jerzy to sign their banner that they'd march with and he was more than happy to. He became a symbol for the movement. During his weekday masses, hundreds would arrive to his small parish church and overflowed into the street and nearby park. Further on, Fr. Jerzy had to speak on the balcony of his church and use a microphone for everyone to hear. Every single homily he gave were recorded. 

He preached to abandon violence and fight the communists with prayer, determination, and Jesus. The government grew more and more angry with Fr. Jerzy as more people listened to his preaching. Guards would station at every block corner to watch him. Fr. Jerzy went out of his way to be kind to them and called them his guardian angels as well as bringing them coffee during the winter. 

On December 13, 1982, a bomb was left on his doorstep that would have killed him if he went to open his door. 

He was imprisoned with hardened criminals, stayed up all night talking to a murderer, and heard his confession. When he was released because the Catholic clergy pulled some strings, he got called to a new Cardinal's office and was expecting to be told to be more careful but got yelled at and scolded instead. He wrote in his journal that the soldiers during his interrogations showed him more respect. After he was released, he was interrogated 13 times between January and June of 1984. He was also strip-searched and the soldier was so embarrassed about having to do that to a priest so he continuously apologized.