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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    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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  • WITOWSKI Charles Otto (Fr Michael), source: thema.erzbistum-koeln.de, own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOWITOWSKI Charles Otto (Fr Michael)
    source: thema.erzbistum-koeln.de
    own collection
  • WITOWSKI Charles Otto (Fr Michael), source: www.benediktinerlexikon.de, own collection; CLICK TO ZOOM AND DISPLAY INFOWITOWSKI Charles Otto (Fr Michael)
    source: www.benediktinerlexikon.de
    own collection

religious status

Servant of God

surname

WITOWSKI

forename(s)

Charles Otto (pl. Karol Otton)

religious forename(s)

Michael (pl. Michał)

function

religious cleric

creed

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

congregation

Order of Saint Benedict OSBmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

(i.e. Benedictines, Black Monks)

diocese / province

Berlin diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.12.04]

nationality

German

date and place
of death

01.02.1945

Paradyżtoday: Gościkowo, Świebodzin gm., Świebodzin pov., Lubusz voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]

details of death

In 1933 left Weingerten abbey with an aim to set up a new abbey in Berlin.

After this failed became a diocesan priest in Berlin.

In 1941, during World War II started by German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939, moved nuns from congregation he founded east to the former Cistercian abbey in Paradies (today Gościkowo).

There in 01/02.1945, in the last months of the war Russian troops arrived.

Perished in the abbey shot by Russians soldiers attempting to defend nuns from rapes.

cause of death

murder

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

Mass rapes in 1945Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description

date and place
of birth

17.09.1885

Berlintoday: Berlin state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31]

religious vows

1921 (temporary)

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1925 (Rometoday: Rome prov., Lazio reg., Italy
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
)

positions held

1941 – 1945

priest — Paradyżtoday: Gościkowo, Świebodzin gm., Świebodzin pov., Lubusz voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18]
⋄ post–Cistercian abbey — chaplain of the female religious congregation he founded; also: prob. chaplain of the State Secondary School operating in the buildings of the former abbey

1938 – 1941

priest — Strausbergtoday: Märkisch‐Oderland dist., Brandenburg state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ Immaculatahaus (Eng. Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary's Congregation house) — founder of a female religious congregation also: commuting chaplain and choir director of the St John the Evangelist parish in Berlin–Südende (1940‐1941)

1936 – 1938

priest — Berlintoday: Berlin state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31]
— chaplain of the Catholic German Women's League chapel; also: music director at the Our Lady of Sorrows church in the Berlin–Lankwit district

1936

leaving — Benedictines OSB

friar — Triertoday: Trier urban dist., Rhineland‐Palatinate state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ St Matthias Abbey, Benedictines OSB — temporarily, prob. during an attempt to found an abbey in Berlin

1929 – 1933

abbot — Weingartentoday: Ravensburg dist., Tübingen reg., Baden‐Württemberg state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ St Martin Abbey, Benedictines OSB

1926 – 1929

friar — Heidelbergtoday: Heidelberg urban dist., Karlsruhe reg., Baden‐Württemberg state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ St Bartholomew Abbey (Neuburg), Benedictines OSB — depury abbot

till c. 1925

student — Beurontoday: Sigmaringen dist., Tübingen reg., Baden‐Württemberg state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.04.12]
⋄ philosophy and theology, St Martin Archabbey, Benedictines OSB

student — Maria Laachtoday: in Glees, Ahrweiler dist., Rhineland‐Palatinate state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ philosophy, Abbey (Germ. Abtei Maria Laach), Benedictines OSB

1920 – 1921

novitiate — Gerlevetoday: in Billerbeck, Coesfeld dist., Münster reg., North Rhine‐Westphalia state, Germany
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.12.05]
⋄ Abbey, Benedictines OSB

1920

accession — Benedictines OSB

sites and events
descriptions

Mass rapes in 1945: During capture in 1944‐1945 of pre‐war German territories and territories incorporated into Germany in 1939 after German invasion of Poland Russian soldiers committed mass, often multiple, rapes on mainly German, but also Polish, women. Up to 2 mln women might have been violated, from 8 to 80 or more years old. Many were murdered as a consequence. Rapes were prob. tolerated if not encouraged by Russian military and civilian NKVD commanders. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.03.01]
)

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.benediktinerlexikon.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06]
, www.enzyklo.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06]
, newsaints.faithweb.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06]
, www.bautz.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06]
, newsaints.faithweb.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.06]

original images:
thema.erzbistum-koeln.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.09.26]
, www.benediktinerlexikon.deClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.07.06]

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