World Church · October 9, 2026
Siedlce Diocese Marks 30 Years Since Beatification of Podlasie Martyrs
The Siedlce Diocese gathered with its shepherds at the tomb of Saint John Paul II in the Vatican on October 6 to give thanks for the beatification of the Podlasie Martyrs, an event that took place thirty years ago. The occasion served as a moment of gratitude for the recognition of these individuals as blessed.
Bishop Gurda described the love of the martyrs for Christ, the Church, and the Pope as a challenge for modern believers. He encouraged the faithful to persevere even when the Church faces criticism. In his homily, he stated that the faith of the Martyrs of Pratulin is needed today. The martyrs were fathers and bachelors who were prepared for martyrdom. Blessed Vincent Lewoniuk was 25 years old when he was the first to be shot by imperial soldiers under the Uniate church in Pratulin, a small village on the Bug River in Podlasie. He came from the nearby village of Woroblin. His twelve blessed companions were men aged 19 to 50, some bachelors and some married with many children, also from surrounding villages. They arrived on January 24 to block access to the temple with their bodies after hearing that imperial troops wanted to take over their Uniate church, a practice used in other parts of Poland. They refused to renounce their connection to the Church and the Successor of Peter. Their only weapon was their presence, a cross, and prayer. They dressed festively to suffer for Christ with dignity. Daniel Karmasz, 48, from Legi, died second while holding the cross, which is kept in the Sanctuary of the Podlasie Martyrs in Pratulin. Constanty Lukaszuk, 45, father of seven children from Zaczkopki, also died from his wounds. His great-grandson, Canon Professor Kazimierz Matwiejuk, spiritual father of the Siedlce diocesan seminary, told Vatican News that he attributes his joy in accepting the priestly vocation to the intercession of his blessed great-grandfather. This is a testimony that many residents of Podlasie, Chelmshczyzna, and Lubelszczyzna are descendants of these heroic Uniates.
The Uniates did not die only in Pratulin. Persecutions affected a vast area during decades of Russification and the liquidation of the Uniate Church. Imperial soldiers carried out massacres before other churches in the region, including Drelowo, Polubicze, and Zablocie. The most accounts and documents were preserved regarding the Pratulin massacre, which led to the opening of the beatification process for Vincent Lewoniuk and his twelve companions in 1938. The process concluded with the beatification by John Paul II in the Vatican on the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest. The witness of the Podlasie Martyrs was not just shedding blood to defend the church. Wladyslaw Reymont described the fate of the Uniates in the 19th century in his reports from travels in the Chelm Land. He noted that they endured daily, systematic abuse and punishments for everything, including baptizing a child, not baptizing in the church, holding night burials, Catholic weddings, and confessions, or simply entering churches. He added that they faced constant suffering, persecution, travels to courts and prisons, endless nights in tears, and days of fear and suffering. In his reports from the Chelm Land, he admired the patience with which the Uniate people endured persecution, describing them as a heroic type with stern but kind faces and fearless eyes. He felt that a group of Christians from the time of Diocletian was telling him their bloody history, but noted that while those earlier Christians died only for faith, these died for both faith and homeland.
Popes knew the fate of the Uniates and were deeply moved by their suffering and witness of faith and loyalty to Rome. Leo XIII received their delegations and a book describing the sufferings of the Uniates in various parishes, signed by thousands of people. Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius XII paid tribute to the martyrdom of the Uniates. Pius XII, in the encyclical Orientales omnes Ecclesias published on the 350th anniversary of the Union of Brest, expressed hope that the Podlasie Uniates of Pratulin would be raised to the altars. This hope was fulfilled by John Paul II. Today, the faithful in the churches of the Siedlce Diocese sing a song called Before the Uniates, thanking God for the grace of having saints from the Podlasie people. For decades during the long beatification process, the refrain asked God not to withhold this grace. The song was sung even during communist times in Podlasie churches, although authorities viewed the remembrance of Uniate persecutions with disfavor. The author recalls winter devotions in the mid-1980s at the Janow Podlaski collegiate church, which was also affected by imperial persecutions, including the abolition of the Janow or Podlasie diocese by the Tsar in 1867 and the expulsion of Bishop Benjamin Szymanski. The church was full of people from Pratulin, Derla, Woroblin, and Legi, dressed in long coats and thick hats during severe frosts reaching minus 30 degrees. The author also remembers a school trip to the burial site of the Uniates, organized by a teacher.