Clergy – Martyrs of Volhynia

Father Boleslaw Szawslowski - the last parish priest from Poryck parish. He
was killed on July 11, 1943 while celebrating a mass.

During the Second World War, Volhynia became the place of martyrdom for numerous Christians. Alongside a couple of tens of thousands of the faithful, 19 Roman Catholic and six Uniate clergy, including six nuns, were killed by the nationalists of OUN-UPA. Most of them were outstanding members of their local communities. Their sacrifice of their lives is the seed for the contemporary rebirth of the Church in the Lutsk Diocese.

The first such victim of Volhynia was Fr Wacław Majewski. He was the parish priest of Melnytsia since May 1939. On 18th March 1943, he was shot by the Ukrainian police with several other people, including his housekeeper, the family of a local chemist, and the post office manager, in the woods. The victims were buried at the place of crime in a common grave.

A bit less than a month later (5th April), two clergymen – Fr Józef Szostak and Brother Piotr Mojsijonek – were killed. The former was the administrator of the Mali Holoby parish, and the latter was the member of the Piarist Order who resided in Lubeshiv. In 1943, the parish priest at the local cloister asked Fr Szostak for help in organising retreat and Easter confession. Piotr Mojsijonek was to bring the priest to his own parish afterwards.  They were both murdered in the woods between Pnevo and Skomorokhy. Their bodies, which were later found, were buried in a common grave near the now non-existent church in Mali Holoby.  (more...)

Clergy – Martyrs of Volhynia

Further accounts here:

Articles: 1943 Volhynia Massacre Truth and Remembrance

The parish church in Poryck during the interwar period. On July 11, 1943 a UPA
conducted a massacre of Poryck inhabitants during a mass.