Višnevo, Belarus – July 2024 – A new grave was blessed on 13 July in Višnevo where the remains of Father Stanisław Michalski, SJ, a Polish Jesuit who died as a martyr at Christmas 1950, rest. There has been a move over time to give the priest a more prominent burial, to remind and make known to the new generations the figure of a man who personally experienced persecution first under the Nazis and then under the Communists, choosing to remain with the people entrusted to his pastoral care until the last. The rite of blessing of the grave and the Eucharistic celebration that preceded it involved Jesuits Viktor Zhuk, parish priest of St Vladislav in Vitebsk, and Ryszard Matejuk, a guest for a few days from Poland; Saledsians Fr Artur Leszniewski, engaged in promoting the knowledge of Fr Stanisław Michalski, and Fr Paweł Szczerbicki, head of the Salesian mission in Belarus; and two members of the Belarusian diocesan clergy: Fr Iosif Mel 'djuk, assistant priest in the parish of the Visitation of Mary in Višnevo, and Fr Vadim Survila, from Vojstam. The plans for the new grave was seen to by Fr Artur Leszniewski, SDB, whose vocation came about at the burial place of Father Michalski, as he recalled during the Eucharistic service: "Thanks to Father Stanisław I have my priestly vocation."

Source: Agenzia Fides

Photographs: Jezuici.pl