Pope at Audience remembers Polish martyrs

By Wojciech Rogacin

“Thirty years ago, Saint John Paul II beatified Wincenty Lewoniuk and his 12 Companions, martyrs who defended, to the point of shedding their blood, their belonging to the Catholic Church and their unity with the Successor of Saint Peter, while remaining faithful to their own Eastern tradition,” Pope Leo XIV said in his greeting to Polish pilgrims during the General Audience.

“I entrust to their intercession the cause of unity among Christ’s disciples and Catholics who are persecuted today for their faith,” the Pope added.

A symbol of Church unity

The Greek Catholic Church emerged in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Union of Brest in 1596, concluded in the city of Brest on the Bug River. Its members came to be known as “Uniates.” Part of the Orthodox hierarchy and faithful recognized the authority of the Pope and embraced the Catholic faith while retaining the Eastern rite.

In the 19th century, the Uniates — Greek Catholics living in eastern Poland, which at the time was under Russian rule — were pressured by the Tsarist authorities to join the Orthodox Church. Those who refused to renounce communion with the Catholic Church faced persecution. Some were killed, while others were deported to Siberia.

Wincenty Lewoniuk and his 12 Companions were lay Catholics belonging to the Uniate Church. Most were farmers from villages in the Podlasie region—husbands, fathers, and young men united by deep faith and attachment to the Catholic Church and their Eastern tradition.

On 24 January 1874, they gathered to defend their Uniate church in Pratulin, in what is now eastern Poland. The commander of the Russian troops ordered his soldiers to open fire on the unarmed men as they knelt in the snow.

The Martyrs of Pratulin came to symbolize fidelity to the Catholic faith and the unity of the Church under the leadership of the Successor of Peter, making their witness a clear call to unity.

John Paul II: journey towards the full unity of Christ’s disciples

Venerable Pope Pius XII had already recalled the inhabitants of Pratulin in his Encyclical Orientales omnes Ecclesias, issued to mark the 350th anniversary of the Union of Brest. He referred to the tragic circumstances in which they defended their church from being converted into an Orthodox place of worship. He expressed the hope that one day they might be venerated among the blessed in heaven.

Pope Leo XIV’s words echo the message of Saint John Paul II during the Beatification Mass celebrated at the Vatican 30 years ago, on 6 October 1996, as the Church marked the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest.

Speaking on that occasion, Pope John Paul II said that Wincenty Lewoniuk and his 12 Companions, raised that day to the honors of the altars, “through their example and intercession, invite us all to continue courageously on the path towards the full unity of the entire family of Christ’s disciples, in the spirit of the ecumenical teaching of the Second Vatican Council.”