Saint of the Day – June 12 – Blessed Alphonsus Maria Mazurek
A Life dedicated to Carmel
Blessed Alphonsus Mary Mazurek is the first beatified martyr of the Polish Carmelite. He was beatified by John Paul II and the 107th martyrs of World War II in Warsaw on June 13, 1999. He knew the first beatified polish Carmelite Saint Raphael Kalinowski, and was his student and follower.
Józef Mazurek was born on March 1, 1891 in the village of Baranówka in the parish of Lubartowska, St. Anne in Lublin. He was the son of farmers Wojciech and Marianna from Goździów. The next day he was baptized in a local church. After high school, certainly thanks to the direction of his father’s brother, Józef’s uncle, who was a Discalced Carmelite (Br. Bogumiła of St. Josephat), went as a twelve-year-old boy to Wadowice, where he began his studies. He lived with his twelve colleagues in the monastery, and attended classes at the seminary school of Marcin Wadowita.
At the end of Józef’s studies in Wadowice, in the spring of 1906, Father Raphael Kalinowski – already seen as a national hero – was the Prior of the monastery in Wadowice. He was interested in his pupils, their well-being, academic performance and spiritual progress. He saw in them the future of the order in Poland. The boys – among whom Joseph too – served him willingly for Mass and used his help in learning foreign languages as well as solving difficult tasks in mathematics. Many years later, testifying as a witness in the beatification process of St. Raphael, Father Alphonsus stated that he was convinced of his holiness and often prayed for the necessary graces at his tomb in Czerna.
Józef was a good student and graduated in 1908 with “a certificate of first degree with distinction”. He was probably already allowed to learn to play the piano, which he liked very much and showed great talent. On the liturgical feast of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, to which he had a special devotion, i.e. August 29, 1908, Józef Mazurek joined the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Czerna near Krakow and received the religious habit, symbolizing his death to the world and the beginning of a new life, with the name: Alphonsus of the Holy Spirit.
He learned about the religious life, history and spirituality of Carmel and was convinced that Carmel was his life’s calling. Therefore, after a year’s novitiate, on September 5, 1909, he made his religious vows, and while still in Czerna, he deepened his knowledge of the theology of religious life, in order to return to Wadowice in the summer for his lower secondary school years and undertook, a three-year study of philosophy, thus preparing for the priesthood. In the autumn of 1913, Alfonso began studying theology at the Bare-bean Carmelite monastery in Kraków. They were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. After receiving the subdeacon (August 9, 1914), Alfonso left with his companions from the Russian army-threatened Krakow to Wadowice, and then on 30 September the superiors ordered them to go to Linz, Austria, so that they could continue their war-torn studies there. Two years later, on July 16, 1916, on the solemnity of Our Lady of the Scapular, Alphonsus of the Holy Spirit was ordained a priest in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna by Cardinal Frederick Gustav Piffle, the local Archbishop of the Metropolitan.
The next day he went to Krakow to meet his uncle and religious confrere Bogumiłem Mazurek. On July 23, he celebrated his thanksgiving in Czerna, Then he went to his home parish, where he has not been for 13 years. His stay in Poland was short, as he was sent by his superiors to Vienna to complete his theological studies (until April 1917).
After his studies, he left Austria definitively, and arrived at Czerna, where in June 1917 he passed the ex universa theology exam. He was later sent to Wadowice on July 14. He was a pastor faithful to listen to the confessions of the faithful and to proclaim the word of God. He was a successful Youth educator. He was rector of seminarians in Kraków, and prefect and teacher of the seminarians in Wadowice. He remained there for a decade, dedicating his strength and youthful enthusiasm for the apostolic upbringing of young people.
In May 1920 the General Chapter of the Order in Rome agreed to resurrect an independent Polish province, which was erased during the partitions. For the province to exist, native vocations were needed. Everyone’s eyes were on the seminarians and their prefect, the young Father Alphonsus. He did not disappoint their expectations. He taught them himself, and, as the pupils recall, “he was demanding, carefully prepared the lesson, felt responsible for their whole upbringing”. He cared about the integral formation of his wards: he emphasized the general culture of being seminarians, maintaining order, diligence in the performance of duties. He promoted artistic interests, organized sightseeing tours and, above all, annual retreats and trips to the Novitiate monastery in Czerna. The results of this upbringing are best known after its fruits. The Vadowicka College thus fulfilled its hopes in an extraordinary way: between 1920 and 1930, that is, while it was headed by Father Alphonsus, approximately one hundred accepted religious life, fifty joined the Order. Despite his total pedagogical commitment,
Father Alphonsus also worked pastorally at the local monastery church, participated fully in the life of the religious community, both local, and more broadly, at provincial level: from 1924 he was by choice a councillor to the provincial administration. He also represented at the General Chapters of the Order in 1925 and 1926 in Rome, where he also took part in the canonization of St. Teresa from the Child Jesus (May 17, 1925) and in the audience with Pius XI.
In May 1930, Father Alfonso Mazurka was made prior of the Monastery in Czerna, where he was for the rest of his life, with the exception of the years 1936-1939, (when he was in the community of the Cherneon monastery) remained for the rest of his life. He was 39 years old and had extensive life experience. The new prior turned out to be a great organizer. Some saw conservative tendencies in him, but he was not afraid, for the better functioning of the community, and introduced modern technical equipment: he built a hydroelectric power plant on the nearby River Elijah, led to the monastery running water, on the adjacent to the monastery wall of the hill, arranged a terraced vegetable garden, carried out the renovation of the sacristy, renovated the religious choir, built the chapel of St. Anne and St. John the Baptist on St. Joseph’s Avenue. He was involved in the pastoral ministry in the monastic church, personally conducting a church choir composed of local girls. He preached conferences for the scapular brotherhood and for the 3rd Carmelite Order, of which he was a visitator for the provincial administration from 1936. He also taught seminarians from Krakow theology.
Elements of spirituality
Former Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites Late Camilo Maccise, in the circular letter ‘Fidelity and Martyrdom’ on March 19, 1999, addressed to the entire Order, called Father Alphonsus a “good and faithful servant” and stated that “fidelity and trust” were the foundation and essential feature of his spiritual life. He always testified of fidelity and constantly hoped, trying to instil both of these attitudes instilled in his brothers and sisters. These features of Father Alfonso’s spirituality emerge clearly from his spiritual writings, which he began to keep from the second year of his religious life, in June 1911.
They show his resolutions, namely: to live constantly in God’s presence, in fidelity to the Constitutions of the Order; renew religious vows every day – morning and night – even when experiencing contempt, to have Christ as the only treasure and in all sufferings to resort to Mary, the Most Beloved Mother.
The faith-based life of Father Alphonsus Maria based his entire spiritual life on a deep faith, expressed in the faithful fulfilment of religious duties and in priestly service, above all in the conscious and dignified celebration of the Eucharist, for the sake of the beauty of God’s worship and in fidelity to contemplative prayer. He often spent time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament to seek light and strength there. His concern for fidelity led him to be strict with himself and to demand it from others. We must stand up to the essence of his message, which tells us about the need to carry out our duties and obligations of religious life, accepted freely, as a response to the vocation and mission in the Church. On the other hand, certain sentences in his writings give us the key to interpreting the meaning of his faithfulness: “All our holiness and perfection is to agree with god’s will, which is the only and highest law of perfection and holiness.”
An eyewitness to his life confirms that he was a man of deep faith, and that he had been supported by deeds throughout the period in which I knew him. He treated his Order, his duties, the celebration of the sacraments of saints in a spirit of faith. He celebrated Mass piously, but this piety had nothing artificial. The same faith made him fearless in continuing his pastoral soul mission during the Nazi occupation, despite the looming repression. One such courageous gesture was to receive young aspirants into the Order. During the war, exposing himself to the occupiers, he helped refugees from Siedlecki. He faced these situations in inner peace, turning his gaze, as he said, to Jesus the poor and despised: “Nothing should disturb the peace and silence of the heart, for this heart should be bound to God himself, not to His consolations, graces or gifts.”
As an educator, he was valued and admired by teachers and students, even though he was demanding. As superior, he was strict, demanding that the monks be faithful to the great ideals of his vocation.
He was a faithful son of Mary. The Blessed Virgin had always been a model and guide of life for him. Even a few of the following sentences from his writings reveal this: “In all the tribulations, afflicts, ailments, and temptations, I will resort to the best and most beloved of my Mother, whom I give all my best and most beloved things. (…) I want to stand faithfully with my Blessed Mother Mary under the cross of Jesus.” His love for Mary and his sense of popular ministry led him to write a small book about Queen Carmel, containing teachings for the Third Carmelite Order. In it he presents the history of Marian devotion in the Order, the piety of the scapular and the practices associated with it. He had no great theological ambitions. In very simple words written for the humble people, he presents in this publication the importance of baptism in our Christian life and the meaning of wearing a Carmelite scapular. He shows Mary in the light of her experience as a model of Christian life and as a collaborator of Jesus in the work of salvation. Addressing the members of secular Carmel emphasizes the value of Christian life in the world.
Martyrdom
Alphonsus’ purifying fidelity was at the same time a free gift of God and the most faithful and generous response to grace. It is a unique act of purifying love. He consecrated his divine existence to God and, in the heroic experience of faith, hope and love, gave himself completely into the hands of a loving and merciful Father. He had always tried to respond faithfully to the demands of his Carmelite vocation, expressed in the daily duties of community life. This, in turn, prepared him in some way to receive the free gift of martyrdom, which is the highest and heroic response of fidelity in the imitation of Christ.
When in the summer of 1944 the fate of the war became increasingly imminent, the Germans began to build trenches on the western border of the country, forcing the surrounding population to work. Poles were cynically told that it was about defending the Polish and Western Christian civilization from the flood of Soviet communism. Of course, this argument had no effect and people, who went to work with great resistance, which is why arrests and murders were often done for intimidation. For Czerna and the surrounding area, 28 August turned out to be a particularly tragic day in this sense. Before the militia arrived at the monastery, they murdered several people in the immediate neighbourhood, in the villages of Filipowice, Nawojowa Góra and in Czerna also.
The Germans arrived at the monastery and carried out cursory revision, ordered the monks to go to a cetain point in Czerna. Prior Alphonsus, whom the occupiers were particularly interested in, kept calm. He went to the church for a while in front of the altar of Our Lady of the Scapular, after which he walked in the front his confreres. From the collective point in Czerna, they were brought along the villagers. The queue was escorted by a car with soldiers. After marching a long distance, Fr Alphonsus was instructed to get in the car and they drove off with him, mistreating him, in the direction of Kracow and Nawojowa Góra. There, in a small meadow, slightly to the side of the main road, his martyrdom was carried out. He was pushed out of the car, according to Anna Spytkowska, who watched the whole scene from the window of her house, and was ordered to walk through the meadow. He kept his composure, held the rosary in his hands. After a while, they shouted at him to turn around and started shooting straight into his face. When he fell, one of the soldiers ran up to him, kicked him and threw the earth from the ground in his mouth.
The Germans then ordered one of the hosts to take the body of the deceased to the cemetery to the Ore Sea and bury it. On the way, they mat his confreres, one of them was Father Valerian Ryszka, who gave him sacramental absolution because he was still alive, although he was unconscious. Another friar Hadrian Gut, sought permission from the Germans to bury him in the religious cemetery in Czerna. The martyr’s funeral took place the next day, August 29, 1944 in the evening. This was described by the newly ordained priest at the time, the holy Father Rudolf Warzecha (died in 1999), who was also a witness in the beatification process of Father Alphonsus.
He emphasized that despite the intimidation and terror on the part of the Germans, the funeral, alongside his religious community, “was also attended by a large group of faithful, mired in sorrow and crying. But perhaps also in the sense of inner conviction that this death of father and priest was and is a witness of a life of fidelity to Christ and the Church, and has something of beauty and memories of the death of the first Christians, martyrs and their funeral in the catacombs. All this happened in the liturgical memory of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, whom (…) Father Alphonsus had a special devotion to and whose words He was to spread, and I belittled himself, and reminded us in his speeches. He came, he lived, and he died to testify.” Father Alfonso was buried next to a novice, the servant of God’s brother Francis Powiertowski from Warsaw, whom the Germans had shot four days earlier when he and his brothers were returning to the monastery. He himself, as a father, led him to the cemetery. Did he think he would rest next to him in a few days?
He was beatified by John Paul II on 13 June 1999, together with many other Polish martyrs.
(Compiled by Fr Regan D’Souza, OCD from various sources)