Blessed Władysław Findysz

Władysław Findysz (13 December 1907 - 21 August 1964) was a Polish priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He was imprisoned under the Communist regime in 1963 until not too long before his death on the charges of sending religious newsletters to his parishioners. He was beatified under Pope Benedict XVI on 19 June 2005. Władysław Findysz was born on 13 December 1907 to Stanisław Findysz and Apollonia Rachwal and he was baptized the day after in the local parish church. His early education was overseen by the Felician Sisters while he later joined the Marian Solidarity movement as a young student. His studies concluded in 1919. Findysz entered the major seminary in Przemyśl in the autumn of 1927 where he was a spiritual student of Jan Wojciech Balicki; he was later ordained to the priesthood on 19 June 1932 before being appointed as the assistant parish priest at Borysław on 1 August 1932 while remaining there until 17 September 1935 when he assumed the duties of an assistant parish priest at Drohobych. Father Findysz was stationed there until 1 August 1937 when he was reassigned to Strzyżów until 10 October 1940 when he was appointed to Jasło. He later was made the parish administrator and parish priest at Nowy Żmigród on 8 July 1941. On 3 October 1944 he and many others were expelled from the town due to the retreating Nazi army and he later returned on 23 January 1945 in order to rebuild his damaged parish while also caring for the refugees and displaced peoples; he also saved several Greek Catholic families that the Communists began to persecute and exile while from 1946 until his death he was observed by the secret police's surveillance officials. He was made an honorary canon in 1946 due to his good works. He was ordered to stop teaching catechism in 1952 and was ordered to live outside of his parish on two occasions in 1952 and 1954 in an attempt by the Communists to hinder his work.