Władysław Bukowiński

Childhood and education

Władysław Bukowiński was born on 22 December 1904 in Ukraine but was a naturalized Pole. Bukowiński was born as the eldest of Jozef Tsypriyan Bukowiński (16 March 1874 – 15 September 1952) and Jadwiga Schipo del Campo (???-1918) and was the brother of Gustav and Irene Bukowiński-Davidovskaya (???-1930). He was baptized on 26 December in the church of Saint Barbara in the names of "Władysław Antoni". He had a half-brother named Zygmunt (???-1982). His father remarried to his sister-in-law Victoria Scipio del Campo after his mother died.

He spent his childhood in a Ukrainian region until 1912 when he relocated to Opatów and then again in 1920 after the death of his mother and the remarriage of his father. In 1914 he began his education in Kiev and then studied in Podolia until 1917 when he began to attend a Polish grammar coed school in Płoskirowie. In 1920 the Bolshevik invasion caused him to move with his family in the village of Sandomierz.

On 24 September 1921 he passed his examinations in Krakow and then began preparations to go to study theology. He studied law in addition to his theological studies at the Jagiellonian University and in 1925 was one of the founders of "Praetoria" in Krakow; he served as its editor from 1925 to 1926. During the course of his studies he published three papers on the history of medieval law and two of these papers received awards from the competent faculty. From 1923 until 1925 he studied and graduated with honors from the Polish School of Political Science at the Faculty of Law at the university and also belonged to the Academic Borderland while serving two consecutive terms as its president. He graduated on 24 June 1926 and was made a Master of Law.

Priesthood and arrests

Bukowiński's call to join the ecclesiastical life came when he met a cleric and so decided to commence his studies for that in 1926. He was ordained to the priesthood on 28 June 1931 by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, and served as a vicar between the period of 1 September 1931 to 20 June 1935. He also served as a catechist in Rabka in that same period while also serving as a vicar and catechist in Sucha Beskidzka from 1935 until 1936 when he was reassigned. He left for Łucka in August 1936 and worked there until January 1945; he worked alongside Polish immigrants as well as both political and criminal prisoners. It was back in Rabka that he founded the academic association "Revival" for young students.

From 18 August 1936 to 1939 he taught sociology and catechism at the Major Seminary there at his own request, and was the general secretary of the Diocesan Institute of Catholic Action from 1938, while simultaneously serving as the director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences and the deputy editor of "The Catholic Life".

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939 the Bishop of Łuck appointed him as a pastor of the main cathedral on 17 September 1939, where he became known for his calmness in the face of war as well as for his intelligence and spiritual values in the defense of the freedom of religion. He became an outstanding preacher and he became a well-known figure to the faithful. He was arrested on 22 August 1940 and sentenced to a life in the camps for the next eight years. At the outbreak of German-Soviet war, the NKVD began to massacre prisoners, and was sentenced to that fate with other prisoners on 23 June 1941, yet was not killed. Narrowly avoiding death, he returned to his duties as a parish priest. He was arrested a second time during the evening of 3 January 1945 together with the priests of the diocese and its bishop Adolf Szelążek. On 22 January 1945 he and his fellow captives were relocated to Kovel and then to Kiev where they were imprisoned while the investigation spanned until that June when all were accused of treason.

In July 1946 he was sentenced to a decade in the gulag and was held in several camps with his labor being digging ditches and clearing trees amongst other things. In November 1947 he was transferred to another prison and once contracted severe pneumonia and was taken to hospital under guard before being sent back to the prison. He was sent to another camp in 1950. During his imprisonment, he administered the sacraments and visited the sick.

On 10 August 1954 he was released from the camp and sent to Karaganda in Kazakhstan where he worked as a watchman at a construction site and was the first Catholic priest to arrive in the nation; he secretly celebrated Mass in private homes with curtained windows in order to avoid detection. As an exile, he was obligated to report to a police station each month and in June 1955 rejected a proposition put forth that he return to Poland and so he decided to assume citizenship of the Soviet Union and remain as a citizen of Karaganda. In May 1956 he received his passport and then resigned as a watchman to return to his priestly duties.

The priest was later in Alma-Ata in June 1957 to aid Polish displaced people though on 3 December 1958 was arrested and on 25 February 1959 was subjected to a hearing and accused of illegal actions that prompted him to defend himself with a speech he composed; the verdict was for three years in a labor camp at Irkutsk and he remained there from March 1959 until June 1961, when he was transferred to another camp on 3 December 1961. He returned to Karaganda in 1962 where he continued his pastoral duties.

Final years and death

He visited Poland three times between 1963 and 1973 where he met with the Archbishop of Krakow Karol Józef Wojtyła - the future pope. But during his visits to Poland he was the subject of surveillance by the Communist secret service forces. In 1965 the Polish authorities granted him permission to return to visit his relatives and he then returned to Karaganda on 31 August. Bukowiński travelled on a mission to Tajikistan in December 1967 and it was the last due to poor health. He returned from that mission on 3 March 1968 where he continued his work after a week of battling an illness. He travelled again to Poland in September 1969 and was there for a month before returning on 16 December 1969; he came back to Poland in December 1972 where he spent time at a hospital for treatment.

Bukowiński spent two months in hospital in Poland until he returned to Karaganda on 19 April 1973 and he settled in August 1974 with a widow Teresa Bitz. In October 1974 he spent a period of rest in Wierzbowca with the priest Józef Kuczynski. He then spent time in that same October with the priest Antoni Chomicki in Murafa for a week at the latter's invitation. The priest celebrated his final Mass on 25 November 1974 and then received the sacraments for the last time from Father Alexander Chiry.

He died on 3 December 1974 in a Karaganda hospital at 5:00pm due to a hemorrhage with a rosary in his hands. His remains were later relocated to the Karaganda Cathedral in 2008. The funeral was celebrated on 7 December at a new cemetery located just outside of the town where a marble grave was erected with an inscription in Polish and German.

Legacy

On 13 November 2011 he was granted the posthumous award of Commander's Cross with the Star of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. It was given to the Bishop of Karaganda Janusz Wiesław Kaleta.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced in 2005; the cause was transferred from Karaganda to Krakow on 28 February 2005 and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted their approval to the cause three months later on 16 May 2005. This designated him with the posthumous title Servant of God and the diocesan process spanned from 19 June 2006 until 8 March 2008. The process was validated on 6 February 2009 which allowed for the Positio to be submitted in 2012 for the C.C.S. to evaluate.

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz called a historical commission for the diocesan process and appointed three committee members before also appointed the members of the diocesan tribunal that included himself as chairman: there were four others including the postulator. One hundred witnesses were called to provide testimonies in five countries: Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany, Austria and Poland.

Theologians met and approved the cause on 22 November 2013 while the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. followed suit in their meeting of 20 January 2015. Pope Francis recognized that he had lived a model life of heroic virtue on 22 January 2015 and proclaimed him to be Venerable.

The miracle required for his beatification was investigated in Karaganda from 22–31 May 2013 and was validated in Rome on 22 November 2013 after all documents were delivered on 19 June 2013; the miracle was Father Mariusz Kowalski's healing of a brain hemorrhage that took place in 2008. It received the approval of the Rome-based medical board and received the approval of theologians on 10 September 2015. The pope approved it on 14 December 2015 which allowed for his beatification to take place; it was celebrated on 11 September 2016 in Karaganda and Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the celebration on the pope's behalf. Over a thousand pilgrims attended the beatification from places such as Belarus and Russia while around fifteen bishops were in attendance.

The current postulator assigned to the cause is Father Jan Nowak who has served as such since the cause commenced.