Primate of Poland Cardinal August Hlond (1881-1948)

Primate of Poland Cardinal August Hlond was born in Silesia on 5 July 1881. As a 12-year-old boy he entered the Silesian Order in Turin. In 1899 he received the title of the doctor of philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorianum University. He received holy orders in Poland in 1905. for a few years he worked in the Salesian centres in Oświęcim, Cracow, Przemyśl, Lviv, and Vienna. Pope Pius XI appointed him in 1922 the apostolic administrator of the Polish part of Silesia.

Four years later he became the Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań and the Primate of Poland. Prior to the outbreak of the war he managed to reorganise the Church administration in Poland, in 1930 established the Catholic Action, the Social Council at the Primate of Poland, organised the 1st National Eucharistic Congress, and founded the congregation of the Society of Christ Fathers to Polish Migrants. After the outbreak of the war, at the explicit wish of the Polish authorities, on 6 September 1939 he left for Rome to notify Pope Pius XII about the tragic events in Poland. He spent the wartime years in France. He took care of Polish migrants, notified the Holy See about the situation of Poland and Poles. Arrested by the Gestapo in February 1944, he was interned in a camp in Westphalia. He came back to Poland in 1945. Cardinal Hlond appointed bishops in the areas taken over by Poland after WWII in the western and northern part of the country and created a new ecclesial administration nominating Polish priests; he likewise prepared blueprints for the rebuilding of 55 Warsaw churches. He indicated to Pope Pius XII his successor, Fr. Stefan Wyszyński.

In 1946 he dedicated Poland to the Sacred Heart of Mary. He died on 22 October 1948. Even though at that time St. John’s Cathedral was in ruins, in keeping with his wish he was buried there. The beatification process of Cardinal Hlond began on 9 January 1992.

aw, KAI //mam