{"id":3328,"date":"2020-06-12T19:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-06-13T02:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:38:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T22:38:50","slug":"blessed-francis-kesy-companions-martyrs-%e2%80%a01942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2020\/06\/12\/blessed-francis-kesy-companions-martyrs-%e2%80%a01942\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Francis Kesy & Companions, Martyrs (\u20201942)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bp. Enrico dal Covolo and Fr. Giorgio Mocci*<\/em><\/p>\n

On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, touching off World War II.\u00a0 The German Army occupied the Salesian house of Poznan on Wroniecka Street and turned it into a storehouse.\u00a0 The youngsters continued to meet in gardens outside the city and the nearby woods.\u00a0 Many secret groups were created.<\/p>\n

In September 1940 Francis Kesy and four companions from the youth center were arrested, accused of belonging to an illegal organization.\u00a0 They were brought to the frightful Fortress VII near Poznan, where they were tortured and interrogated.\u00a0 Subsequently they were transferred to several other prisons, sometimes together, sometimes not.\u00a0 Brought back to Poznan, they were accused of high treason, tried, and condemned to death.\u00a0 They were martyred at Dresden on August 24, 1942.<\/p>\n

While in prison they lived their Salesian spirituality with a spirit of faith.\u00a0 They prayed continually:\u00a0 the Rosary, novenas to Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians, morning and evening prayers.\u00a0 They tried to keep in touch with their families thru messages, which they often succeeded in sending out secretly.\u00a0 They maintained their courage, asking for and promising prayers.\u00a0 When they could, they celebrated liturgical feasts joyfully in their cells.\u00a0 Their faith never wavered.\u00a0 They were incredible witnesses until the end.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2035\"<\/p>\n

Francis Kesy<\/strong> was born in Berlin on November 13, 1920.\u00a0 His family moved to Poznan on account of his father\u2019s job.\u00a0 Francis was a seminary aspirant with the Salesians at Lad.\u00a0 During the German occupation he couldn\u2019t continue his studies, and he went to work in an industrial establishment.\u00a0 He spent his free time at the youth center, where he formed a close, idealistic friendship with the other four youths, and animated youth groups and activities.\u00a0 People remember that he was sensible but at the same time cheerful, calm, understanding, and ever ready to help others.\u00a0 He received Communion almost every day; in the evening he prayed the Rosary.\u00a0 \u201cAt Wronki, since I was alone in my cell,\u201d he wrote to his family, \u201cI had time to examine myself.\u00a0 I promised to live differently, as Don Bosco recommended to us, to live to please our Lord and his Mother, Mary most holy.\u00a0 I pray to the good God that all these tribulations and unpleasantries might touch me and not you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chester Jozwiak<\/strong>, born at Lazynie on September 7, 1919, was of a rather irascible character, but spontaneous, full of energy, master of himself, ready to make sacrifices, consistent, and definitely influential.\u00a0 People saw that he aspired to Christian perfection, to progress in Christian life.\u00a0 A companion in prison wrote of him:\u00a0 \u201cHe was of good character and good heart; he had a soul of crystal\u2026.\u00a0 He confided one preoccupation to me:\u00a0 that he never stain himself with any impurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edward Kazmierski<\/strong> was born in Poznan on October 1, 1919.\u00a0 He was marked by sobriety, prudence, and goodness.\u00a0 At the youth center he was able to develop his unusual musical talent.\u00a0 His family was imbued with religious spirit, and with he brought that the Salesians quickly to Christian maturity.\u00a0 During his imprisonment he showed a great love toward his fellow inmates, even the oldest.\u00a0 He was free of any sentiment of hatred toward his persecutors.<\/p>\n

Edward Klinik<\/strong> was born at Bochum on June 21, 1919.\u00a0 Timid and calm, he became lively when he entered the youth center.\u00a0 He was a methodical and responsible student.\u00a0 He was noted because he was so dedicated in every field of activity, and he gave the impression of being most serious and deep.<\/p>\n

Jarogniew Wojciechowski<\/strong>, born in Poznan on November 5, 1922, was thoughtful and tended toward grasping more deeply what he saw so as to understand events.\u00a0 He was an animator in the best sense of the term.\u00a0 He was distinguished by his good humor, his sense of duty, and the good example that he gave.<\/p>\n

The Vatican decree of martyrdom of the five young men was published on March 26, 1999.\u00a0 They were beatified by St. John Paul II on June 13, 1999, as part of a large group of Polish victims of the Nazis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Santi nella Famiglia Salesiana<\/em>, 2d ed. (Turin: LDC, 2009), pp. 38-39.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bp. Enrico dal Covolo and Fr. Giorgio Mocci* On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, touching off World War II.\u00a0 The German Army occupied the Salesian house of Poznan on Wroniecka Street and turned it into a storehouse.\u00a0 The youngsters continued to meet in gardens outside the city and the nearby woods.\u00a0 Many secret groups were created. In September 1940 Francis Kesy and four … Continuar leyendo Blessed Francis Kesy & Companions, Martyrs (\u20201942)<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20310044],"tags":[35890],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-province-news","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-RG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3330,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}