• OUR LADY of CZĘSTOCHOWA: st Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionOUR LADY of CZĘSTOCHOWA
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
link to OUR LADY of PERPETUAL HELP in SŁOMCZYN infoSITE LOGO

Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

  • St SIGISMUND: St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
  • St SIGISMUND: XIX c., feretory, St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland; source: own collectionSt SIGISMUND
    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland

XX century (1914 – 1989)

personal data

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  • CIEŚLA Felix; source: thanks to Ms Helen Zięcik, Przedecz regional historian, kindness (private correspondence, 2021.04.15), own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOCIEŚLA Felix
    source: thanks to Ms Helen Zięcik, Przedecz regional historian, kindness (private correspondence, 2021.04.15)
    own collection

surname

CIEŚLA

forename(s)

Felix (pl. Feliks)

  • CIEŚLA Felix - Commemorative plaque, military field cathedral, Warsaw, source: own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOCIEŚLA Felix
    Commemorative plaque, military field cathedral, Warsaw
    source: own collection
  • CIEŚLA Felix - Commemorative plaque, military field cathedral, Warsaw, source: own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOCIEŚLA Felix
    Commemorative plaque, military field cathedral, Warsaw
    source: own collection
  • CIEŚLA Felix - Commemorative plaque, St Stanislaus church, Sankt Petersburg, source: ipn.gov.pl, own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOCIEŚLA Felix
    Commemorative plaque, St Stanislaus church, Sankt Petersburg
    source: ipn.gov.pl
    own collection

function

diocesan priest

creed

Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

diocese / province

Włocławek diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]

date and place
of death

04.1940

Kuropatyforest complex
today: on the border of Minsk, Barauliany ssov., Minsk dist., Minsk city reg., Belarus

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.01.18]

alt. dates and places
of death

05.1940, 09.1939

details of death

From 01.01.1939 chaplain of the Polish Army reserve.

At the beginning of 1939 together with Fr Joseph Tomczyk, his friend, applied to a training course for military chaplains.

In 08.1939 during military mobilization of the country both volunteered to the Polish Army.

In 09.1939 after German and Russian invasion of Poland and start of the World War II captured by Russians and held as POW.

Fate thereafter unknown.

Prob. murdered in Kuropaty in one of the genocidal mass execution of Polish officers by the Russians.

alt. details of death

According to family sources held prisoner in Russian slave labour concentration camps in Ural mountains, or further east, in Siberia (together with Fr Joseph Tomczyk).

There was to die, possibly in 1950s.

According to yet other sources might have been murdered by Ukrainian nationalists.

cause of death

extermination

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

KuropatyClick to display the description, «Katyn genocide 1940»Click to display the description, GulagClick to display the description, «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

25.06.1907

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

14.06.1936 (Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
)

positions held

1937 – 1939

prefect — Radziejówform.: Radziejów Kujawski
today: Radziejów gm., Radziejów pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
⋄ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Radziejówform.: Radziejów Kujawski
today: Radziejów gm., Radziejów pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
RC deanery — including: elementary school, coeducational gymnasium

1937

vicar — Koźminektoday: Koźminek gm., Kalisz pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
⋄ St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist RC parish ⋄ South Kaliszdeanery name
today: Kalisz city pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
RC deanery

1937

vicar — Błaszkitoday: Błaszki gm., Sieradz pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
⋄ St Anne RC parish ⋄ South Kaliszdeanery name
today: Kalisz city pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.12.16]
RC deanery

1936 – 1937

vicar — Grodziectoday: Grodziec gm., Konin pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.27]
⋄ St Adalbert the Bishop and Martyr RC parish ⋄ Tuliszkówtoday: Tuliszków gm., Turek pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.05]
RC deanery

1931 – 1936

student — Włocławektoday: Włocławek city pov., Kuyavia‐Pomerania voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary

others related
in death

JASTRZĘBSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, KUREKClick to display biography Stanislav, MALINOWSKIClick to display biography Clement, STANISŁAWSKIClick to display biography Steven, SZCZERBICKIClick to display biography Fabian, SZUMOWSKIClick to display biography Marian Richard, ŻURAWSKIClick to display biography Ceslav, ŻYLIŃSKIClick to display biography Boleslav, TOMCZYKClick to display biography Joseph

sites and events
descriptions

Kuropaty: In 1940 Russians executed prob. in Minsk on 17 Lenin Str. and buried in Kuropaty n. Minsk unknown number of Poles (POWs). On the so‐called „Belarusian Katyn list” — confirmed by the so‐called „disposal letters” sent in 04‐05.1940 by the 1st Special Department of the NKVD in Moscow regarding the transport of Polish prisoners of war to places of execution: 9 of these lists concern prisoners from Belarus — from the so‐called note of Alexander Shelepin, head of the Russian KGB, it can be concluded that it concerns c. 3,870 people (according to some sources 4,465) and the prisoners were brought from NKVD prisons, among others from Brest (c. 1,500 people), Pinsk (c. 500), Baranavichy (c. 450). This was a fulfillment of Russian Commie‐Nazi government decision — Political Bureau of the Russian Commie‐Nazi party of 05.03.1940 — to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and individuals held in Russian POW camps following Ribbentrop‐Molotov German‐Russian accord and annexation of half of Poland into Russia, confirmed by the order No.00350 of the head of the NKVD, Mr Lavrentyi Beria, on the „discharge of NKVD prisons” in Ukraine and Belarus. There are indications — i.e. 4 so‐called „NKVD‐Gestapo Methodical Conferences” of 1939‐1940: in Brześć on Bug, Przemyśl, Zakopane and Cracow — of close collaboration between Germans and Russians in realization of plans of total extermination of Polish nation, its elites in particular — decision that prob. was confirmed during meeting of socialist leaders of Germany: Mr Heinrich Himmler, and Russia: Mr Lavrentyi Beria, in another German leader’s hunting lodge: Mr Hermann Göring, in Rominty in Romincka Forest in East Prussia. Kuropaty is the place of death of up to 250,000 of victims (1937‐1941). To this day, neither the Russians nor the Belarusians have released detailed protocols of this genocide in their possession. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.17]
, pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.10]
)

«Katyn genocide 1940»: On 05.03.1940, the Russian Commie‐Nazi authorities — the Politburo of the Russian Communist Party — made a formal decision to exterminate tens of thousands of Polish intelligentsia and military personnel held in Russian camps as a consequence of the German‐Russian Ribbentrop‐Molotov Agreement, the invasion of Poland and the annexation of half of Poland in 09.1939, and the beginning of World War II. The implementing act was order No. 00350 of the head of the NKVD, Mr Lavrentyi Beria, on the „discharge of NKVD prisons” in Ukraine and Belarus. On 03.03.1959, Alexander Shelepin, head of the Russian KGB, described it in a handwritten note: „Since 1940, the Committee for State Security under the Council of Ministers of Russia, has been keeping records and other materials relating to the prisoners of war and interned officers, gendarmes, policemen, etc., people from former bourgeois Poland shot that year. In total, based on the decision of the special troika of the NKVD of the USSR, 21,857 people were shot, of whom: 4,421 people in the Katyn Forest (Smolensk Oblast), 3,820 people from the Starobelsk camp near Kharkov, 6,311 people from the Ostashkov camp (Kalinin Oblast), and 7,305 people in other camps and prisons in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. The entire operation of liquidation of the above–mentioned was carried out on the basis of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of 05.03.1940”. The operation — the murders were committed, among others, in Katyn, Kharkov, Tver, Bykovnia and Kuropaty — was coordinated centrally from the NKVD headquarters in Moscow. This is evidenced by the so‐called deportation lists of subsequent groups of Polish prisoners (usually about 100 people) from NKVD camps sent to places of execution, prepared and distributed a few days before the executions from Moscow. It is also evidenced by the earlier deportations of Polish priests from the Kozelsk, Ostashkov and Starobilsk NKVD camps to NKVD prison in Moscow, or their isolation, just before Christmas on 25.12.1939, prob. in order to deprive Polish prisoners of spiritual care at that time — clearly actions controlled from the NKVD HQ in Moscow. There are indications — i.e. four so‐called „NKVD‐Gestapo Methodical Conferences” of 1939‐1940: in Brest on Bug, Przemyśl, Zakopane and Cracow — of close collaboration between Germans and Russians in realization of plans of total extermination of Polish nation, its elites in particular — decision that prob. was confirmed during meeting of socialist leaders of Germany: Mr Heinrich Himmler, and Russia: Mr Lavrentyi Beria, in another German leader, Mr Hermann Göring, hunting lodge in Rominty in Romincka Forest in East Prussia. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.12.15]
)

Gulag: The acronym Gulag comes from the Rus. Главное управление исправительно‐трудовых лагерей и колоний (Eng. Main Board of Correctional Labor Camps). The network of Russian concentration camps for slave labor was formally established by the decision of the highest Russian authorities on 27.06.1929. Control was taken over by the OGPU, the predecessor of the genocidal NKVD (from 1934) and the MGB (from 1946). Individual gulags (camps) were often established in remote, sparsely populated areas, where industrial or transport facilities important for the Russian state were built. They were modeled on the first „great construction of communism”, the White Sea‐Baltic Canal (1931‐1932), and Naftali Frenkel, of Jewish origin, is considered the creator of the system of using forced slave labor within the Gulag. He went down in history as the author of the principle „We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of the so‐called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — prisoner — i.e. Rus. заключенный‐каналоармец (Eng. canal soldier) — was coined in the ITL BelBaltLag managed by him, and was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held in Gulag camps at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08]
)

«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.wtg-gniazdo.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.02.15]
, www.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.02.15]
, biographies.library.nd.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20]

bibliographical:
Victims of German crime among Włocławek diocese clergy”, Fr Stanislav Librowski, „Włocławek Diocese Chronicle”, 07‐08.1947
Annals of the Włocławek diocese — 1926‐1939 (also: Catalogus Ecclesiarum et Utriusque Cleri tam Saecularis quam Regularis dioecesis Wladislaviensis seu Calissiensis — till 1925)”, Włocławek and Włocławel-Kalisz diocesan Curia
regional historian of Przedecz”, Ms Helen Zięcik, private correspondence, 2021.04.15
original images:
www.katedrapolowa.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16]
, ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]

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MARTYROLOGY: CIEŚLA Felix

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