Józef Padewski

Bishop Józef Padewski

Józef Padewski (born February 18, 1894 in Antoniów, Lipsko district , Masovian Voivodeship , † May 10, 1951 in Warsaw ) was Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) in the USA and Canada and led the missionary work of his church in Poland .

Life

After high school in Krasnystaw ( Lublin Voivodeship ), he emigrated to the USA in 1913 . In Chicago he learned the PNCC know and entered 1916 in the seminary of the Church in Scranton one. In 1919 he was ordained a priest by Bishop Franciszek Hodur (1866–1953) .

In November 1931 Padewski arrived in Poland, where he worked as a collaborator with Bishop Leon Grochowski to consolidate the Church in Poland and to intensify the ties between the faithful and the clergy of the PNCC in Poland and the Mother Church in the USA. The Second Synod of the PNCC in Poland elected him bishop in June 1935. On August 26, 1936, he was ordained bishop in Scranton .

At the end of September 1942 he was arrested by the German occupying forces . First he was taken to Kraków's Montelupich prison , then to Tittmoning in Upper Bavaria . Through the mediation of the Swiss Red Cross , he was released after 18 months in prison and returned to the USA at the end of March 1944.

Grave in the Powązki military cemetery

In 1946 Padewski went to Poland again to help rebuild the church. During the period of Stalinist terror, he was arrested by state security officials. He died on May 10, 1951 during the detention in prison of the secret police Polish Ministry of Public Security in Warsaw from the effects of sustained abuse . He is the only bishop in Poland who paid with his life for his commitment to the Church during the period of communism .

Web links

Commons : Józef Padewski  - collection of images

• Biskupa Józefa Padewskiego. Parish “Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa”, 2007, archived from the original on August 28, 2008 ; accessed on May 15, 2019 (Polish).