Prayer to Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko — chaplain of Solidarity, martyr of communism

Polish priest, born in Okopy (Voivodeship of Białystok) on 14 September 1947, ordained in 1972. Chaplain of the steelworkers in Warsaw and then of the trade union Solidarity (Solidarność), he celebrated from 1982 the «Masses for the Fatherland» on the last Sunday of each month, attended by tens of thousands of faithful and persecuted by the communist regime. On the night of 19 October 1984, returning to Warsaw, he was kidnapped by three agents of the Security Service (SB) of the Ministry of the Interior, beaten, bound and thrown into the river Vistula. His body was found on 30 October. Beatified by Benedict XVI on 6 June 2010 in Warsaw, by papal mandate through Card. Angelo Amato. The Polish Episcopate declared him “patron of Solidarity, of persecuted Christians, and of societies struggling against totalitarianism, consumerism and the chaos of values”. Feast: 19 October.

God, source of all good, who in your love have given the priestly dignity to Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, and sent him to proclaim with zeal your Word, to celebrate with fervour the holy sacraments and to be close to every man calling to forgiveness, to unity and to peace, even to shedding his blood to «overcome evil with good» (cf. Rom 12:21): by his merits and intercession, grant us the courage to live in the truth of the Gospel before every ideological lie, and to transform into prayer and forgiveness the sufferings of our hour. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.