Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947-1984)
A priest born in 1947 in the small village of Okopy in north-eastern Poland, he was the chaplain of the Solidarity movement under the Communist dictatorship of Gen. Jaruzelski in Poland. In the Church of St Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw,Fr Popiełuszko celebrated masses for the Fatherland, and his sermons drew crowds of people. In his words and the example of his life, he attested the motto of St Paul: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” He inspired people with strength, bravery and the conviction to resist the dictatorship, and as such the Communist authorities considered him dangerous. In October 1984 he was brutally murdered (kidnapped, tortured and drowned in the Vistula) by political police officers. He was beatified on 6 June 2010. The grave of Jerzy Popiełuszko in the grounds of the Church of St Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw is a destination of mass pilgrimages. John Paul II himself also prayed there. In the same parish there is also a monument to Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, and a museum dedicated to his memory.