Father Stanisław Streich beatifies in Poland, murdered by a communist when he celebrated the Mass

This May 24, the Catholic Church in Poland celebrated the beatification of the Stanisław Streich priest, a martyr of the faith that was killed in 1938 by a communist when he was celebrating the Mass.

The beatification mass was celebrated in Poznań (Poland) and was chaired by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicasteria for the causes of the saints.

In his homilythe purple stressed that the beatification of P. Streich “confirms even more than Poland is the land of saints and blessed”, because it joins San Juan Pablo II, Santa Faustina Kowalska, the Blessed Esteban Wyszyński and Jerzy Popiełuszko, among others.

In his list of Santos Poles, Cardinal Semeraro made a special mention to San Estanislao, Bishop and Martyr who, “according to tradition, was killed at the foot of the altar while celebrating the Mass, as happened, many centuries later, Stanisław Streich.”

The purple also reflected on the passage of the Gospel that speaks of the good shepherd, an image “used by Jesus” that gives “a decisive meaning to the figure and the testimony of our new blessed.”

“In his priestly and pastoral commitment,” he said, “Father Streich took Jesus as a model to imitate. He was a man who loved life, lived her with simplicity and dignity and especially spent her with a cheerful heart in favor of the communities that were entrusted to her. This disposition and resolution of spirit then found her full fulfillment in the self -active.”

“In the death of this martyr, the words of Christ were fulfilled: ‘If the wheat grain dies, it bear a lot of fruit,” said the cardinal, and recalled the words of Saint León Magno: “The Church does not weaken with the persecutions, on the contrary, it is strengthened with them. The church is the field of the Lord, which dresses up with a rich, because the grains, which fall one by one.

Therefore, said Cardinal Semeraro, “we can say that Blessed Estanislao Streich continues to speak, not from the pulpit of the church where he was barbarously, but from the pulpit of his life delivered.”

Who was the priest Stanisław Streich?

Blessed Stanisław Streich was born on August 27, 1902 in Bydgoszcz (Poland) and was ordered priest on June 6, 1925.

The Vatican website Causesanti He says that Fr. Streich insisted on the catechesis of children, youth and adults, and to help workers, unemployed and needy families. However, this was not well seen by the communists who had arrived in Luboń, the city where the priest grazed.

In 1937, Blessed began to be harassed with anonymous letters that defamed him and threatened him with death, and even strangers “broke into the church desecrating the tabernacle and dispersing liturgical clothes.”

“On February 22, 1938, a man who, according to a reconstruction of the facts, was about the same murderer, Wawrzyniec Nowak, linked to communist ideology, who communicated something that impacted Blessed,” said Blessed, “recounts the website.

The Vatican indicates that the Polish priest was aware of the hostility and, anticipating the danger he ran, wrote his own testament. He also visited his mother for the last time and on Saturday, February 26 he returned to his parish.

On the morning of Sunday, February 27, Father Streich “went up to the altar to celebrate the Mass. As he approached the Ambon, a man shot him four times with a gun.” In his attempt to flee, the murderer wounded other people, but was captured by the crowd that gave him the police. Subsequently, “Nowak was prosecuted and sentenced to death.”

The biography published by Dicastery indicates that Blessed “probably saw the murderer among those present.” “Given the imminence of sacrifice, his last thought was to protect the children who were in the church, who withdrew from the pulpit,” he says.

He also explains that, as in most martyrdoms of the twentieth century, the murder of Blessed was indicated by a hate to the intertwined faith “with political motivations”, because “during the criminal trial, the murderer often stripped against the Church and its exponents.”

“The proximity of the priest to the workers was held by Nowak and the communists, who considered the Church and its complicit exponents of the oppression and slavery of the poor classes.” Therefore, the murder of Fr. Stanisław was also “a warning for other clergy.”

The dicas supplies for the causes of the saints affirms that the death of Fr. Stanisław “was the culmination of a life faithful to his vocation and the gospel. His fame of martyr, present at the time of his murder, persisted throughout the years of the communist regime and continues to this day.”