(ANS – Vatican City) – On Tuesday, December 3, 2024, the Theological Consultants of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, during the Peculiar Congress, answered in the affirmative regarding the Positio super martyrio of the Servants of God Jan Świerc and 8 Companions, Professed Priests of the Society of St Francis de Sales, killed in odium fidei in the Nazi death camps in the years 1941-1942. The Positio had been delivered on July 21, 2022, with  Father Szczepan Tadeusz Praśkiewicz, OCD as rapporteur,  Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB as Postulator, and  Dr Mariafrancesca Oggianu as Collaborator. The nine Consultants were called upon to answer the question concerning the reputation of martyrdom and its foundation, that is, martyrdom and its cause. On the basis of this judgment, the Cardinals and Bishops, Members of the Dicastery, will be able to subsequently express their judgment on the martyrdom of the Servants of God.

On June 27 1941, Frs Jan Świerc, Ignacy Dobiasz, Franciszek Harazim, and Kazimierz Wojciechowski died at the hands of the SS in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz (Poland). These last two Servants of God, specifically, were killed side by side at the same time. Servant of God Fr Ignacy Antonowicz died three weeks later, on July 21, 1941, as a result of the mistreatment suffered precisely on June 27, 1941. On January 5, 1942, the Servant of God, Fr Ludwik Mroczek, also died due to torture and numerous surgical operations. A few months later, on May 14, 1942, Fr Karol Golda was shot in the same camp, accused of having administered the sacrament of confession to two German soldiers. On September 7, 1942, the Servant of God Włodzimierz Szembek also died in the Auschwitz camp: in his case, too, it was the mistreatment that caused his death. All the Servants of God mentioned belonged to the Saint Hyacinth Province of Krakow, Poland. Servant of God Fr Franciszek Miśka, a member of the Salesian Saint Adalbert Province of Piła, Poland, died in the Dachau concentration camp (Germany) on May 30, 1942, as a result of ill-treatment and torture.

Servants of God Fr Jan Świerc and 8 Companions are wtiness to the fact that just when death seems to have achieved its victory, the real winners are those who suffer for the faith, and were able to participate in an extraordinary way in the Cross of Christ and adhere to its saving plan. Taking up the words of Pope Francis, “The Lord always gives us strength; he does not fail us. The Lord no longer tests us for what we can tolerate. He is always with us.” This is why the nine Servants of God were able to accept martyrdom supported by the same certainty with which the apostle Paul wrote: “I can do all things in Him who gives me strength” (Cf. Phil 4:13).

This news was received with great joy, especially by the Provinces of Krakow and Piła, the Salesian Family of Poland, and the Christian communities of origin of the Servants of God. “The martyrdom of these Salesian confreres who have faced persecution and death with fortitude for the name of Jesus,” the Postulator General for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, Fr Cameroni said, “is an example for us and they are our intercessors in living our baptism consistently and persevering in faith in the hour of trial and temptation.”