Saint of the Day – 22 March – Blessed Bronislaw Komorowski (1889-1940) Priest and Martyr

Saint of the Day – 22 March – Blessed Bronislaw Komorowski (1889-1940) Priest and Martyr.   Born on 25 May 1889 in Barlozno, Pomorskie, Poland and died by shooting, on Good Friday 22 March 1940 in a field, outside the Stutthof concentration camp near Sztutowo, Pomorskie, Poland.   Bl Bronislaw, a Polish Patriot and Teacher, was murdered by the Nazi occupiers at Stutthof concentration camp, together with a number of Polish activists captured during the Polish September Campaign  . On 13 June 1999, Fr Komorowski was among 108 Polish Martyrs of World War II, Beatified in Warsaw by St Pope John Paul II.

Bronisław Komorowski was born on 25 May 1889 in Barłożno near Starogard Gdański in a peasant family.   After finishing the primary school and studies in Collegium Marianum in Pelplino, in years 1910-1914 he studied at the Seminary in Pelplino.   He was Ordained to the Holy Orders on 2 April 1914.

From the beginning of his pastoral work, Fr Komorowski was an activist of Polonia of the Free City of Gdańsk.   Beginning in 1920 he participated actively, in organising chaplaincy, churches and ministry in the Polish language.   In 1923, together with other Polish activists, he created the Polish Churches Construction Association and in 1924 he created a church in a former riding arena in Gdańsk where he organised a chaplaincy for the Polish population.   In 1925, thanks to his efforts, the Saint Stanislaus church was Consecrated.   In the following years he continued his activity for the benefit of the Polish people in the Free City of Gdańsk.   Many associations and organisations were created thanks to his initiative.   Fr Komorowski was also a political activist.   In 1933-1934, he was one of the councilors of the Free City of Gdańsk.   In 1935, he run for Polish deputy in the Volkstag in Gdańsk.

Arrest
On 1 September 1936 Fr Bronisław Komorowski was arrested in his parish, from where he was taken to “Viktoria Schule”.   Maksymilan Kempiński, a prisoner of the Nazis, describes this moment in his memoirs:   ”Then I saw that Fr Komorowski was passing through the gate and did not avoid the blows of the soldiers.   Upright, though stained with blood, he reached our small room.”   Another prisoner, Wiesław Arlet, also remembers his meeting with Fr Komorowski in “Viktoria Schule” – “After the registration, my group was lead to a cellar so crowded that one could only stand.   Among the maltreated people I saw Fr Komorowski, the parish priest of the Saint Stanislaus church in Wrzeszcz.   His mouth was crushed into a bloody pulp”.

Stutthof
On 2 September, Fr Komorowski was placed in a 150-person group of prisoners sent in the first transport to Stutthof concentration camp.  From the beginning of his imprisonment in the camp, he was persecuted and harassed by the SS men.   Firstly, he worked on constructing the camp’s barracks, then he was given the hardest and most unpleasant work, mostly cleaning the toilets.   In this way the Nazis wanted to humiliate the well-known Polish priest.   They also named him the “captain” of the group which was cleaning the camp cesspit, at the same time forcing him to harass his subordinates. They didn’t achieve their goal because, as one of the prisoners, Roman Bellwon, recalls: “…he showed Christian love towards others, helping the most exhausted, sharing his food with them.   Maltreated and cruelly tormented, until the end, he kept his heart open to everyone and a smile on his face.   He always kept up our spirits and he always showed a truly Polish and sacerdotal attitude.”

Another witness of the humiliation of Fr Komorowski by the Nazis, Fr Wojciech Gajdus, asked him once what he felt when he was working in cesspit as a “captain.”   Fr Bronislaw responded: “I felt as if I was in the pulpit watched by the prisoners and I cared that the sermon should be good.   I think these were my finest sermons”.

In the last days of September 1939, Fr Bronisław Komorowski together with other priests, had been accused of stocking up on weapons in the church to protect themselves there. He was threatened that if he didn’t plead “guilty” he would be shot.   Because he did not confirm the accusation he was punished with a three-day imprisonment in a bunker, where he was starved and tortured.

Execution
On 22 March 1940, on Good Friday, Fr Bronisław Komorowski together with a group of 66 activists of Polonia Gdańska, was taken away to the woods near the camp and shot. The grave was hidden but in 1946 it was found.   After the exhumation, the bodies were buried on 4 April 1947 on the Gdańsk-Zaspa cemetery.

In 1999, Fr Bronislaw was Beatified by St Pope John Paul II.   In the same year, the Social Committee of the Construction of the Blessed Bronisław Komorowski Monument was established.   The monument was unveiled on the Bronisław Komorowski square in Wrzeszcz in 2000, in the 110th anniversary of the priest’s birth, the 85th anniversary of his Ordination and 75th anniversary of the Consecration of the Saint Stanislaus church.