Karol Herman Stępień
Hermann Stepien in 1938
Born
Karol Herman Stępień

October 21, 1910
Łódź, Poland
DiedJuly 19, 1943(1943-07-19) (aged 32)
Borowikowszczyzna, Poland
Other namesHermann Stepien
OccupationPriest

Karol Herman Stępień (October 21, 1910 – July 19, 1943) was a Polish Roman Catholic martyr.

Early life

Stępień was born on October 21, 1910, in Łódź, Poland.[1][2] He grew up in a poor family in Łódź.[2]

Stępień was educated in Łódź.[2] He attended the Franciscan seminary in Lviv, graduating in 1929.[2] He then attended the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure in Rome.[2] He was ordained as a Franciscan priest in 1937 in Rome.[2]

Stępień returned to Poland, where he earned a Master's degree in Theology from Lviv University.[2]

Vocation

He served as a Francisco priest in Radomsko and Vilnius.[2] In 1940, he was asked by Bishop Kazimierz Bukraba of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pinsk to go to Piaršai to help their parish priest, Achille Puchala.[2]

When the Nazis invaded in 1943, Stepien decided to stay and keep preaching.[2] He declared: "Pastors cannot leave the believers!".[2]

Death

On July 19, 1943, the Nazis took Stępień, Puchala and their parishioners to a barn in Borowikowszczyzna (today Borovikovshchina in Valozhyn District, Belarus), which they set on fire, thus murdering them all together.[1][2][3]

Legacy

Stępień was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 13, 1999, in Warsaw, Poland.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Andreas Resch, Die Seligen Johannes Pauls II: 1996-2000, Innsbruck: Resch Verlag, p. 230
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Biography of Hermann Stepien, Church of Saint Sigismund, Słomczyn, Piaseczno County
  3. 1 2 Nominis: Bienheureux Achille Puchala et Hermann Stepien
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