September 10 will mark the first anniversary of the beatification of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children. During the year, the Archdiocese of Przemyśl released 850 reliquaries in Poland and abroad. The relics of the blessed were sent to Japan, Australia and South Korea, the Curia’s chancellor, Fr. Bartosz Rajnowski, told PAP.
One year ago, on September 10, the beatification of the Ulma family took place in Markowa. More than 35,000 people attended the liturgy, presided over by the Pope’s envoy, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. people.
Chancellor of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Przemyśl, Fr. Bartosz Rajnowski reported that during this year the archdiocese released more than 850 reliquaries.
We have received requests not only from parishes, congregations and orders in the country, but also from abroad, especially from Polish missionaries serving in various regions of the world. Thanks to them, the relics of the Ulma family are present in countries such as Tanzania, South Africa or Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Kazakhstan, but also in Russia, China and Georgia. They have also reached Central, South and North America. Recently, we even delivered them to Japan and South Korea.
– said the chancellor.
Fr. Rajnowski noted that as far as Poland is concerned, most of the relics went to the dioceses of Łomża and Warsaw-Praga and to the Archdiocese of Warsaw.
In addition to parishes, relics were requested mainly by family ministries, family counseling centers, pro-life movements, children’s communities and places where permanent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament takes place.
In two cases, representatives of hospitals for newborns and pregnancy pathology departments where chapels exist also requested
– added the priest.
The Chancellor announced that one of the fruits of the beatification is the national pilgrimage of the relics of the Ulma family in subsequent dioceses, which has been taking place since September 24 of last year.
They are currently in the Archdiocese of Lublin, from where they will be transferred to the dioceses of Zamość-Lubaczów and Rzeszów. On September 21 of this year they will return to the Archdiocese of Przemyśl.
– he said.
Pilgrims visit the church where the remains of the murdered family are buried and the Museum of Poles Who Saved the Jews.
Individuals, families and organized groups come here. Most pilgrims arrive on the weekend. On some Saturdays, in addition to the parish Masses, there are eight or nine additional Eucharists celebrated by the priests who come with the pilgrims.
– added Father Rajnowski.
He said most of the foreign pilgrims are from Slovakia, Italy and Germany. They also come from Israel.
A special book has been placed in Markowa in which you can record the graces received through the Ulma family. Testimonies can also be sent to the Canonization Department of the Przemyśl Curia.
All of them are reviewed, read and classified by the Director of the Faculty. He hopes that one of the testimonies will be examined further for a possible miracle through the intercession of the blessed, necessary for their future canonization.
– said Father Rajnowski.
Pilgrims often ask for the intercession of the blessed family in matters related to the conception of a child, the birth of a child, family health and care, or the raising of children.
You can submit requests via the website ulmowie.pl.
Holy Mass is celebrated once a week for the requests and thanks that people receive and ask for.
– said the chancellor.
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the beatification, a thanksgiving ceremony has been scheduled for Sunday, September 8, at the Markowa sports stadium. The highlight will be the Holy Mass on the 15th. This will be followed by a concert by the musical and vocal group “Rozpaleni Duchem” from Sanok and the choir and chamber orchestra “Nicolaus”.
The beatification process lasted 20 years
The process of beatification of the Ulma family lasted 20 years. It began on 17 September 2003, as part of the process of beatification of the second group of martyrs of the Second World War (122 people in total). During the investigation, due to lack of necessary evidence, the group of alleged martyrs of the Second World War was reduced to 89 people. In order to collect witness statements and documentation regarding the alleged martyrdom of the Ulma family, a rogatory trial (collection of witness statements and documentation) was held in the Archdiocese of Przemyśl, which ended on 25 April 2008.
On 31 January 2017, Metropolitan Archbishop Adam Szal of Przemyśl asked the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints (now the Dicastery) to exclude the trial of “the servants of God Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children” from the trial of 89 martyrs of World War II. Following a favorable decision by the congregation of the Archdiocese of Przemyśl, a new, independent beatification process was opened “on the martyrdom of the Servants of God – Józef Ulma and Wiktoria Ulma, spouses and 7 companions, their children, killed, as is alleged, because of hatred against the faith in 1944.” During the diocesan stage, 11 witnesses were interviewed. Most of them were close relatives of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, two of whom are still alive today.
Beatification
In July 2020, work on the 500-page Positio on the martyrdom of the Ulma family was completed. It was then evaluated by seven historians, bishops and cardinals, ordinary members of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The Positio is a scientific study whose objective, in the case of the Ulma family, was to prove that they were martyred for their faith in Christ. Its most important part is the three constitutive aspects of the theology of martyrdom, namely: material (how the servant of God died), former formal victims (the reasons for the sacrifice – what guided Joseph and Wiktoria when they welcomed eight Jews under their roof) and former formal persecutoris (the reasons of the persecutors – why they took the lives of the Ulma family).
On December 17, 2022, Pope Francis decided to beatify the Ulma family, murdered by the Germans for hiding Jewish families.
Józef and Wiktoria Ulma lived in the village of Markowa in the Lviv Voivodeship before the war, now Podkarpackie. In the spring of 1944, they were reported, probably by a blue police officer, that they were hiding Jews. On March 24, 1944, German gendarmes from the Łańcut police station committed a massacre in the Ulma family. The Jews were killed first. Among them were two daughters of the Ulmas’ neighbors – the Goldmans: Golda (Genia) Gruenfeld and Lea Didner with a small child. The three Szall brothers, their 70-year-old father Saul Szall and another man from the Szall family were also murdered. Then Józef and his wife Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, were shot in front of Ulma’s children. Finally, the children were killed – eight-year-old Stanisława, six-year-old Barbara, five-year-old Władysław, four-year-old Franciszek, three-year-old Antoni and a one-and-a-half-year-old child, Maria. 16 people died in the massacre.
In 1995, Wiktoria and Józef Ulma were posthumously honored by Yad Vashem with the title of Righteous Among the Nations, and in 2010 with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński. In 2016, the Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews was opened in Markowa. Ulma’s family, and since 2018, at the request of President Andrzej Duda, the National Day of Remembrance of Poles Who Saved Jews under German Occupation, instituted by the Sejm and the Senate, has been celebrated.
READ MORE:
— The Ulmas became patrons of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. President: The inhabitants of this land have served God and their country for generations
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MD/PAP
