Priest & Martyr
Optional Memorial
Father Hilary Januszewski, born in Krajenki, Poland, in 1907, became a Carmelite in Cracow at the age of twenty. After completing his theological studies in Rome, he returned to Cracow, where he became prior of the community. He was arrested on December 4, 1940, & taken to the concentration camp at Dachau, where he contracted typhoid fever while caring for the sick. Widely known for his faith & his charity, he died March 25, 1945.
From the Common of One Martyr, except for the following:
Office of Readings
Second Reading
A reading from the Canonical Process
He gave his life that others might live
Pawel Januszewski was born in Krajenki, Poland, June 11, 1907. At the age of twenty he sensed a vocation to the Carmelite Order & entered the Order in the friary of Cracow, taking the religious name Hilary. He was sent to Rome, to the International College of St. Albert, for his theological studies, & there he made his solemn vows, & in 1934 he was ordained to the priesthood. The following year, having earned the degree of Lector in Theology & having won the prize awarded to the best prepared student by the Roman Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, he returned to his homeland. There he was named prefect of clerics & sacristan in the friary of Cracow. IN 1939, when war was immanent, he was named prior of the same friary.
Fr. Hilary was inflexible in his demands on himself, but very charitable with others. He showed special concern for the sick & the needy. He was widely known for his devotion, a quality particularly evident in his apostolic zeal, in his celebration of Holy Mass, in his prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, in other religious practices & in his fervent love for his Order. He spent long periods before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the church of Cracow. He gave frequent, well-prepared conferences to the clerics, & he took great pains as bursar to see to it that everyone without distinction – clerics, brothers, priests – had what he needed.
On December 4, 1940, the Gestapo arrested several religious. Fr. Hilary, who spoke German fluently, did everything possible to free them; he even offered himself in place of an aged & infirm confrere. So began his Calvary, which was to end in the concentration camp at Dachau.
There he was assigned to the arduous labor in the fields; regardless of his situation, he never forgot he was a priest & religious: a man of prayer who gave good example & exhorted the others to hope for a better future. He encouraged them, he ministered to them, he helped them. When he received some little gift from his confreres in Cracow, he shared it with them in all simplicity He consoled his fellow prisoners with the hope of returning to Poland, and he inspired them saying: “You are to return to Cracow & work in the Lord’s vineyard.”
Evenings, after the final roll-call, the Carmelite prisoners gathered together, always secretly, for prayer. Carmelites of Other countries also participated, such as the Dutch Carmelite Blessed Titus Brandsma.
When the war was almost over & rescue seemed finally near, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out. None of those responsible for the care of the victims was willing to help them. At that point the authorities turned to the priests: thirty-two of them volunteered for this service, fully aware that they were facing almost certain death. Among them was Fr. Hilary.
Archbishop Kozlowski, a Jesuit, survived the camp & provided the following testimony; “Their decision was truly heroic, dictated by true love of neighbor. What we experienced during those five years could have annihilated any ideals. The ruthless struggle for survival could have been a source of selfishness & indifference toward others. But these heroic priests are a clear witness that the commandment of love, love of neighbor, promulgated by Christ is not pure utopianism, but rather an authentic reality that conquers even where blind hatred is master.”
Fr. Hilary confided in one of his friends, “I have made my decision, even though I am aware I will not come out of there alive.” He served the infected victims for twenty days, with some hundred dying each day. He himself died on the Feast of the Annunciation in 1945, a few days before the death camp was freed. Fr. Hilary Pawel Januszewski was called to the glory of Christ, & so – filled with hope – ended his young life.
