Jan Świerc and 8 companions

Each of these priests embodied, through his ministry, the educational and pastoral charism of Saint John Bosco:\n\n- Jan Świerc (1877-1941): Born in Królewska Huta, ordained a priest in Turin in 1903. He directed several Salesian houses and became pastor of the Dębniki parish in Krakow in 1938, where the young Karol Wojtyła was a parishioner.\n- Ignacy Antonowicz (1890-1941): Born in Więsławice, ordained in Rome in 1916. Holding a doctorate in philosophy and theology, he taught dogmatics and became rector of the Salesian theologate in Krakow.\n- Ignacy Dobiasz (1880-1941): Born in Ciochowice, ordained in 1908. He exercised his pastoral and educational ministry in various Polish localities before becoming a parish collaborator in Krakow.\n- Karol Golda (1914-1942): Born in Tychy, ordained in 1938. He taught theology at the Oświęcim theologate.\n- Franciszek Harazim (1885-1941): Born in Osiny, ordained in Ivrea in 1915. He was director of the Oświęcim high school and professor of theology at the Salesian major seminary in Krakow.\n- Franciszek Miśka (1898-1942): Born in Świerczyniec, ordained in 1927. He was pastor and rector of the Salesian Institute of Ląd.\n- Ludwik Mroczek (1905-1942): Born in Kęty, ordained in 1933. He worked as an educator and pastor in Oświęcim, Lviv, Częstochowa, and Krakow.\n- Włodzimierz Szembek (1883-1942): Born in Poręba Żegoty, from a noble family (count), with a degree in agronomic engineering. He entered the Salesians late at age 45 and was ordained in 1934.\n- Kazimierz Wojciechowski (1904-1941): Born in Jasło, ordained in 1935. A teacher of music and mathematics, he was director of the oratory and the Catholic Youth Association in Krakow.

Tragedy struck the Salesian community of Kraków-Dębniki on May 22 and 23, 1941, when the Gestapo arrested six priests from the house (Jan Świerc, Ignacy Antonowicz, Ignacy Dobiasz, Franciszek Harazim, Ludwik Mroczek, and Kazimierz Wojciechowski). Imprisoned at the Montelupich prison in Kraków, they were subjected to violent interrogations and torture. On June 26, 1941, they were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

From the day after their arrival, June 27, 1941, four of them—Jan Świerc, Ignacy Dobiasz, Franciszek Harazim, and Kazimierz Wojciechowski—were beaten to death by camp guards in the gravel pits of Auschwitz. Father Ignacy Antonowicz succumbed to his injuries three weeks later, on July 21, 1941, in the camp hospital. Father Ludwik Mroczek died on January 5, 1942, in the Auschwitz hospital from a severe infection of his wounds caused by the torture.

The three other companions met equally heroic fates: - Father Włodzimierz Szembek was arrested in Skawa on July 9, 1942. He courageously offered himself as a hostage in place of the community director, Father Walenty Kozak, who was 72 years old. Tortured in the Zakopane prison, he died of exhaustion and mistreatment at Auschwitz on September 18, 1942 (or September 7). - Father Karol Golda was arrested on December 31, 1941, in Oświęcim for hearing the confessions of German soldiers. Transferred to Auschwitz, he was executed by firing squad on May 14, 1942. - Father Franciszek Miśka, rector of Ląd, was arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he died of starvation and torture on May 30, 1942.

The beatification process for Jan Świerc and his companions opened in 2003 as part of a collective cause for Polish martyrs of the Second World War. The diocesan phase concluded in 2011 in Pelplin, and the Positio was officially submitted in Rome in July 2022.

On October 24, 2025, Pope Leo XIV authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing their martyrdom in odium fidei.

The solemn beatification ceremony was celebrated on June 6, 2026, at the Saint John Paul II Sanctuary in Krakow, Poland. It was presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Leo XIV.

Their liturgical feast is set for May 23, the anniversary of the arrest of the Salesians of Krakow-Dębniki.

The spirituality of these nine martyrs is deeply rooted in the charism of Saint John Bosco, characterized by love for youth, gentleness, and total self-giving. Even in the heart of the concentration camp hell of Auschwitz and Dachau, they continued to exercise their priestly ministry clandestinely, hearing the confessions of prisoners, celebrating the Eucharist at night, and providing spiritual and moral support to their companions in misfortune. Their testimony deeply marked the religious history of Poland. The young Karol Wojtyła, then a parishioner of Dębniki, was a direct witness to the arrest of his priests in May 1941. In his book Gift and Mystery, he would recall the decisive impact of this sacrifice on the maturing of his own priestly vocation. During the beatification mass in 2026, in the absence of bodily relics (the bodies of the martyrs having been burned in the crematoria of the camps), personal objects that had belonged to the new blesseds were carried in procession as second-class relics: the testament of Father Świerc, a letter written from the camp by Father Mroczek, and a notebook of spiritual notes by Father Szembek.