Resurrectionist Martyrs – Br. Maksymilian Depczyński CR & Cl. Ignacy Sztukowski CR.
- Commemorating our Martyrs during the month of November
Br. Maksymilian Depczyński CR
Brother Maksymilian Depczyński CR was born on August 15, 1880, in Łobżenica near Piła in the Prussian Partition. He was the son of Franciszek and Balbina (née Wnuk). He was baptized on August 17, 1880, and received the sacrament of Confirmation in September 1893. From the age of four, he lived in Głuchów near Poznań, where his father was an organist. There, he also attended school and, being passionate about music, received organ lessons from his father. At the age of 21, he was conscripted into compulsory military service in Poznań, which he completed over two years. Shortly after leaving the army, he joined the Congregation of the Resurrection on December 8, 1904, in Kraków. As he noted in his application, he had felt a calling to the order from a very young age. He made his first religious profession on July 29, 1906, and his perpetual vows on July 29, 1912. In the order, he served as an organist in Kraków and Lwów. In 1914, as a Prussian citizen, he was forcibly drafted into the German army and sent to the Western Front. There, he was tried by a military court and executed by the Germans for refusing to reveal the identities of two Polish soldiers who had deserted to the French army. He preferred to give his own life rather than betray the deserters to death. He ended his earthly life near Verdun on October 27, 1915. It was later reported to the Congregation that Brother Maksymilian “met a holy and heroic death.” He rests, along with other comrades-in-arms, in a mass soldier’s grave at the Douaumont Ossuary in France.
Cleric Ignacy Sztukowski CR.
Cleric Ignacy Sztukowski CR was born on August 7, 1914, in Chotów Nowy near Ostrów Wielkopolski (Poznań Archdiocese), the son of Franciszek and Julianna (née Mikołajczyk). He was baptized on August 9, 1914, in Gostyczyn and confirmed on
March 22, 1930. He attended primary school in Chotów, the male high school named after A. Asnyk in Kalisz (1926-1933), and completed his secondary education at the H. Sienkiewicz Gymnasium in Lwów (1935-1936). He joined the congregation on August
12, 1933, and made his first vows on February 15, 1935, in Kraków (before Father Henryk Nowakowski CR). He studied philosophy and theology at John Casimir University in Lwów (1936-1939) and made his perpetual vows on February 15, 1938, in Lwów (before Father Franciszek Torbus CR, the superior of the house and rector).
He was tall, had a great sense of humor, and was known for his diligence in studies. After the outbreak of the war, he briefly found himself in Kraków before moving
back to Chotów. He was arrested by the Nazis in Małe Graby near Ostrów Wielkopolski and was initially imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. From September 17, 1940, he was held in Dachau (prisoner number 19866), where he was murdered on December 27, 1940. A memorial plaque in his honor is located in Chotów.