Our Blessed Missionaries - Martyrs:
FEASTDAY: JUNE 12
The SVD is blest with four martyrs beatified on June 13, 1999. They are Louis Mzyk (1905-1940), Stanislaus Kubista (1890-1940), Aloysius Liguda (1892-1942), and Gregory Frackowiak (1911-1943). They are among the 108 beatified Polish martyrs who gave their lives during World War II.
World War II and the SVD
World War II is usually said to have begun in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. Some historians point back to the seizure of Manchuria and part of Mongolia by the Japanese in 1931-32 as the start of the global war. USA entered the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In that same year, Japan invaded the Philippines. World War II was a holocaust, that is, a massive and widespread destruction. Human values were ignored and human dignity violated. Justice and peace and integrity of creation became meaningless. The war brought difficult times and trials for the whole church, although some local churches suffered more than others.
WW II came to an end in 1945 when Berlin fell to the Allies (France, Britain, USSR, and USA), when Hitler committed suicide, and when Japan surrendered in August when USA dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki