Venerable Lojze Grozde

Lojze Grozde (27 May 1923 – 1 January 1943) was a Slovenian student who was murdered by Partisans during World War II. His death is recognised as martyrdom by the Catholic Church. He was beatified on 13 June 2010. Grozde was born on 27 May 1923 in the small village of Zgornje Vodale near Mokronog in Lower Carniola, Slovenia. He was an illegitimate child. When he was four years old, his mother married France Kovač. His stepfather chased Grozde away whenever he wanted to see his mother. Later, because Grozde was a good pupil, the stepfather became friendlier towards him, and so he remained at the house and his aunt took care of him. She saw to his schooling and sent him to a school in Ljubljana, where she was working as a servant. Some benefactors helped her support her nephew. He stayed at the Marijanišče boarding school and attended the Classical Secondary School (Klasična gimnazija) in Ljubljana. There he was a good student, and he also found time to write poetry and prose. He was a member of the Catholic Action religious movement and a member of the Marian Congregation of Slovene Divinity Students and Priests. The later part of his high school years coincided with the early years of World War II. Under these strained circumstances, Grozde became increasingly religious and was leaning towards the study of theology and the priesthood, but he was killed in the last year of his high school studies. During his summer vacation of 1942 he did not go home because there was a lot of violence in the countryside and it was not easy to travel. It was only for New Year 1943 that he decided to visit his mother and other relatives. He asked for a permit to travel home. First he visited a friend of his at the village of Struge.