Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
surname
CIESIELSKI
forename(s)
Francis (pl. Franciszek)
function
laybrother
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
congregation
Order of Discalced Carmelites OCDmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Discalced Carmelites, Barefoot Carmelites)
diocese / province
Lviv archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
07.02.1944
Novyi Vyshnivetstoday: Vyshnivets, Vyshnivets hrom., Kremenets rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17]
alt. dates and places
of death
21.02.1944 (c.)
details of death
After German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the World War II, after German attack on 22.06.1941 of their erstwhile ally, Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, resided in a monastery in Novyi Vyshnivets.
In early 1944, the German–Russian front began to approach Eastern Galicia. On 02.02.1944, the Russians, as part of the so‐called Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, occupied Lutsk and Rivne in Volyn, c. 80 km northeast of Vyshnivets.
On the same day, both Novyi and Staryi Vyshnivets were abandoned by a unit of German troops of the Germ. Wehrmacht and a unit of the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalion), i.e. Schuma, also known as the „Black Police”, composed of Ukrainian volunteers, subordinated to the Germ. Ordnungspolizei (Eng. Order Police), i.e. OrPo, a formation directly subordinated to the German genocide mastermind Heinrich Himmler as the Germ. Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Eng. Chief of the German Police).
On 06.02.1944‐or 20.02.1944, as sources differ‐a unit of Hungarian troops stationed there, fighting alongside the Germans, also left Novyi Vyshnivets. The town was deprived of the protection of any armed unit of the occupying German forces.
The Ukrainians took advantage of this, implementing a genocidal plan, known in history as «Genocidium Atrox», of the genocide against the Polish population of Volyn and Eastern Galicia. For in 02.1943, Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the main commander of the UPA, issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.
A unit of the genocidal Ukrainian organization OUN/UPA invaded Vyshnivets. They tricked their way into the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites OCD — prob. by posing as Poles, rescued refugees from another village, and according to another version, by posing as Soviet soldiers, they convinced the monastery to open its gates — where c. 180 Poles, mainly women and children, had taken shelter.
The testimony of Mary Ciesielska, the mother of organist Francis Ciesielski, who took shelter for the night in a shed near the dungeon, is summarized by a contemporary historian as follows: „Organist Francis Ciesielski, who lived in the same cell, immediately woke Father Camillus and announced that Ukrainians were trying to break into the monastery. They had even forced open the outer door with an axe and a crowbar. Father went out to them. Two Banderites demanded Father Camillus give them a lamp and the key to the basement, claiming there were weapons there. Father Camillus began to explain to them that there were no weapons there. But the Ukrainians refused to listen, and increasingly insisted that Father Camillus come with them, with the key. Father went.
Maria Ciesielska […] in the moonlight could clearly see Father Camillus walking on the right side of the Ukrainian, who was holding a lamp in his left hand and a knife in his right. Father Camillus, sensing something bad, walked slowly and gently explained to the Ukrainian: «Sir, there's nothing there, only potatoes». The Ukrainian, however, remained silent. The witness clearly saw the caution with which Father Camillus descended the stairs to the dungeon. After entering the basement, Maria heard Father Camillus" piercing cry: «Jesus!» And at that moment a single shot rang out. Maria guessed that Father Camillus had been shot.
And only now the bloody, cruel, cold‐blooded murder began. A Ukrainian woman who was in the monastery at the time told Maria Ciesielska about this. After killing Father Camillus, the Ukrainians rushed to the monastery. Brother Cyprian wanted to hide in the part of it where the hospital run by a Ukrainian, Dr Kozyrov, was located, but he was not there. The Ukrainians then grabbed Brother Cyprian and murdered him second in the basement.
The third was Francis, son of Maria Ciesielska. The Ukrainian who came for him found him praying in a corner of the cell at the foot of a statue of the Virgin Mary. He said: «Frank, what are you hiding?» The organist replied evasively: «I"m not hiding, I"m just looking for my hat». Then the torturer, in cold blood, although he clearly knew him, led the organist to the dungeon and murdered him.
And so, for three hours, one by one, all the men were led from the monastery to the dungeon to be killed. Finally, around 12 midnight, all the women and children, about 150 in number, were herded into the second basement and three grenades were thrown there.
And then everything fell silent.
On the night of February 8th to 9th, On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ukrainians robbed the monastery and church. Then they brought straw to the church and around 9 a.m.
on February 9th, they set it on fire. And the Discalced Carmelite Church in Wiśniowiec burned down. Only the blackened walls remained”.
Some of the 180 Polish victims from the monastery were hanged, others were killed by blows to the head with metal objects.
In total, c. 300 Poles were murdered in Novyi Vyshnivets. In neighboring Staryi Vyshnivets, Ukrainians murdered c. 160 people, burning some alive in the local St Stanislav church. Degenerates from the OUN/UPA threw the bodies of the burned ones into a well.
Those murdered on the monastery grounds, after the Russians occupied Vyshnivets on c. 21‐22.03.1944, were extracted from the cellars and buried in a mass grave in the cemetery. A monument was erected on the site of the well into which the Ukrainians had thrown some of the victims. The mass grave in the cemetery was not commemorated or marked, and today it is covered with bushes.
To this day, it is not known exactly which unit of the genocidal OUN/UPA committed the murders in Wiśniowiec. Some Polish scientists claim that it was the Ukrainian УПА‐Юг (Eng. UPA‐South) kurin, i.e. unit, under the command of Stepan Savchuk, nom de guerre „Nalyvayko”, who, before becoming the commander of the kurin, was a collaborator of Schuma; others claim that it was a unit of the so‐called OUN Security Service.
Ukrainian scientists remain silent. How could it be otherwise, since on 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, and in several nowadays Ukrainian locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to OUN/UPA fighters, those Lat. „hostis humani generis”.
Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”
cause of death
mass murder
perpetrators
Ukrainians
sites and events
«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
1924
positions held
till 1944
candidate to the order — Novyi Vyshnivetstoday: Vyshnivets, Vyshnivets hrom., Kremenets rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ monastery, Discalced Carmelites OCD ⋄ St Michael the Archangel RC church ⋄ Staryi Vyshnivetstoday: Vyshnivets hrom., Kremenets rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.05], St Stanislav the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Kremenetstoday: Kremenets urban hrom., Kremenets rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.10.18] RC deanery — church organist and monastery assistant
others related
in death
GLECZMANClick to display biography Joseph (Fr Camillus of St Sylvestre), LASOŃClick to display biography John (Bro. Cyprian of St Michael)
sites and events
descriptions
«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20])
Ribbentrop‐Molotov: Genocidal Russian‐German alliance pact between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and German leader Adolf Hitler signed on 23.08.1939 in Moscow by respective foreign ministers, Mr. Vyacheslav Molotov for Russia and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany. The pact sanctioned and was the direct cause of joint Russian and German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. In a political sense, the pact was an attempt to restore the status quo ante before 1914, with one exception, namely the „commercial” exchange of the so‐called „Kingdom of Poland”, which in 1914 was part of the Russian Empire, fore Eastern Galicia (today's western Ukraine), in 1914 belonging to the Austro‐Hungarian Empire. Galicia, including Lviv, was to be taken over by the Russians, the „Kingdom of Poland” — under the name of the General Governorate — Germany. The resultant „war was one of the greatest calamities and dramas of humanity in history, for two atheistic and anti‐Christian ideologies — national and international socialism — rejected God and His fifth Decalogue commandment: Thou shall not kill!” (Abp Stanislav Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken — backed up by the betrayal of the formal allies of Poland, France and Germany, which on 12.09.1939, at a joint conference in Abbeville, decided not to provide aid to attacked Poland and not to take military action against Germany (a clear breach of treaty obligations with Poland) — were on 28.09.1939 slightly altered and made more precise when a treaty on „German‐Russian boundaries and friendship” was agreed by the same murderous signatories. One of its findings was establishment of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe and in consequence IV partition of Poland. In one of its secret annexes agreed, that: „the Signatories will not tolerate on its respective territories any Polish propaganda that affects the territory of the other Side. On their respective territories they will suppress all such propaganda and inform each other of the measures taken to accomplish it”. The agreements resulted in a series of meeting between two genocidal organization representing both sides — German Gestapo and Russian NKVD when coordination of efforts to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and Polish leading classes (in Germany called «Intelligenzaktion», in Russia took the form of Katyń massacres) where discussed. Resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including thousands of priests presented here, and tens of millions of ordinary people,. The results of this Russian‐German pact lasted till 1989 and are still in evidence even today. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])
Pius XI's encyclicals: Facing the creation of two totalitarian systems in Europe, which seemed to compete with each other, though there were more similarities than contradictions between them, Pope Pius XI issued in 03.1937 (within 5 days) two encyclicals. In the „Mit brennender Sorge” (Eng. „With Burning Concern”) published on 14.03.1938, condemned the national socialism prevailing in Germany. The Pope wrote: „Whoever, following the old Germanic‐pre‐Christian beliefs, puts various impersonal fate in the place of a personal God, denies the wisdom of God and Providence […], whoever exalts earthly values: race or nation, or state, or state system, representatives of state power or other fundamental values of human society, […] and makes them the highest standard of all values, including religious ones, and idolizes them, this one […] is far from true faith in God and from a worldview corresponding to such faith”. On 19.03.1937, published „Divini Redemptoris” (Eng. „Divine Redeemer”), in which criticized Russian communism, dialectical materialism and the class struggle theory. The Pope wrote: „Communism deprives man of freedom, and therefore the spiritual basis of all life norms. It deprives the human person of all his dignity and any moral support with which he could resist the onslaught of blind passions […] This is the new gospel that Bolshevik and godless communism preaches as a message of salvation and redemption of humanity”… Pius XI demanded that the established human law be subjected to the natural law of God , recommended the implementation of the ideal of a Christian state and society, and called on Catholics to resist. Two years later, National Socialist Germany and Communist Russia came together and started World War II. (more on: www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28], www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28])
sources
personal:
www.academia.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13], www.katolicki.netClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2022.12.10], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19]
bibliographical:
„Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933‐1945”, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ed. Martin Dean, volume II: „Ghettos in German–Occupied Eastern Europe”, part A
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
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