Saint Brunon Zembol

Brunon Zembol, OFM, born Jan Brunon Zembol (September 7, 1905, in Łętownia – August 21, 1942, in Dachau), was a Polish Catholic priest, a Friar Minor (Reformed), a martyr of World War II, and a blessed of the Catholic Church. He was born in the village of Łętownia into a family of moderately wealthy farmers, one of thirteen children of Franciszek and Anna née Radoń. From 1912 to 1917, he attended the local primary school. In 1922, he entered the Order of Friars Minor (Province of Our Lady of the Angels, known as the Reformed province) and took the name Brunon on November 12. He resided in monasteries in Przemyśl, Stopnica, Kęty, Włocławek, Kraków, and Lwów. He made his religious profession on March 6, 1932. Beginning in 1933, he worked at the monastery in Sądowa Wisznia, and from 1937, at the monastery in Chełm. In 1939, he was arrested by the Germans along with other friars and imprisoned in the Lublin Castle. In June 1940, he was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and in December of the same year, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died on August 21, 1942, as a result of inhumane treatment. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 13, 1999, in Warsaw, as one of the 108 blessed martyrs.