Jan Macha is a Polish priest who was murdered for helping the families of soldiers fighting against or imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II.
Pope Francis approved the cause of his beatification in 2019, but due to the pandemic the ceremony was delayed until this November 20.
Fr. Macha was born in 1914, and was ordained a priest just before the outbreak of World War II, in 1939.
As a priest he was a member of an underground group of thousands of volunteers called 'Lily of the Valley,' which supported families persecuted by the Nazis.
FR. TOMASZ WOJTAL
Archdiocese of Katowice (Poland)
'He used to collect money which he then shared with these families. He also brought them food and products necessary for daily life. He would meet with them, he would comfort them'.
In 1941 he was arrested and tortured while in prison. He was then sentenced to death, and was beheaded in 1942. His body was never recovered.
FR. TOMASZ WOJTAL
Archdiocese of Katowice (Poland)
'He asked for a symbolic tomb to be built that would remember him in the future when people would go to the cemetery in his city and could pray an Our Father for him'.
Fr. Macha was only 28 years old when he was sentenced to death by guillotine. After saving thousands of people he will become the first Blessed from his region in southern Poland.
BSB
TR: JM
