This August 9, the Church in Peru commemorated the Blessed martyrs Miguel Tomaszek and Zbigniew Stzałkowski, Franciscan friars who in 1991 refused to abandon their community in Pariacoto, Áncash, and were killed by the Marxist terrorist group Sendero Shining.
In its official site, the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) recalled the delivery of these young Polish priests, “for the love of Christ and the poorest,” in the midst of “a violence that tried to silence the voice of the Gospel.”
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Both lived in Peru around eleven years.
THE HISTORY OF THE POLACK BASES
Miguel Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzalkowski were killed for hate to faith by members of the Shining Path, a terrorist group of Marxist, Leninist and Maoist ideology who sought to take power in Peru through violence.
The Tomaszek and Strzalkowski priests were martyred in Pariacoto, a district of the North Peruvian Sierra. On August 9, 1991, hikers broke into the parish house, took the two presbyters and took them to the town cemetery. P. Miguel was shot in the neck; To Fr. Zbigniew, on the back and then in the head.
A few weeks later, on August 25, 1991, in the town of Vinzos, another priest, Fr. Alessandro, was also killed.
The then Bishop Emeritus of Chimbote – fallen on March 19, 2021 – and promoter of the cause of canonization of the three, Mons. Luis Bambarén, told ACI Press in 2015 that Abimael Guzmán, founder of the Shining Path, acknowledged from prison to have given the order to execute them. According to the prelate, Guzman even apologized and admitted that the evangelizing work of the priests was an obstacle to the ideological indoctrination that they wanted to impose in the area.
This confession was considered a “key testimony” for the recognition of its martyrdom. The cause of beatification began in the mid -1990s and officially concluded on February 3, 2015, when Pope Francis approved the decrees that confirmed that the three had been killed by “hate of faith.”
The martyrs were beatified on December 5, 2015 in Chimbote, during a ceremony chaired by Cardinal Angelo Amato, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I work as a digital journalist. I started my career in the newspaper El Comercio in Peru. In 2016, I began as editor in ACI Press and I perform as a web editor since 2018. From 2024, I write the Newsletter for Social Media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.