Tipperary Mass of Welcome for the relics of two Polish martyrs

Sunday,  April 21, Good Shepherd Sunday, Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly SMA celebrated a Mass of Welcome for the relics of Polish martyrs, Blessed Zbigniew Strzałkowski and Michal Tomaszek. This Mass was celebrated at Saint Joseph and Saint Brigid Church, Bohernanave, Thurles.

Archbishop O’Reilly said: “I welcome the relics of two modern day Polish missionary martyrs, Blessed Zbigniew and Blessed Michal. It is a privilege for the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly to have the opportunity to venerate their memory.

“The Church in the world today has many brave and courageous religious and lay people who are placing their lives in danger to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. The presence of the relics will enable us to bring to our hearts and minds the many Christians in our time who are suffering as they witness to their faith. I thank the Polish community, and Father Jaroslaw Kurek OSB, for facilitating the bringing of the holy relics to the Archdiocese.”

Glenstal Abbey-based Father Kurek OSB, originally from Poland, has been the lead organiser for the visit of the holy relics to Ireland. Father Kurek said: “It is the goal of the Polish community to strengthen the Catholic faith by venerating the heroic Franciscans who sacrificed their lives in the Peruvian Andes in 1991. We wish to share the good news of their lives and ministy with both the Polish citizens and with our Irish brothers and sisters in faith who, over the last twenty years, have magnanimously accepted us on their land and in their workplaces.”

Attendance at Sunday’s Mass of Welcome celebration  included the General Consul of the Embassy of Poland, Mr Maciej Wójcik; the Abbot of Glenstal Brendan Coffey OSB; members of the monastic community; as well as clergy and parishioners of the archdiocese.

Known as the Martyrs of Chimbote, these two Polish Conventual Franciscan Friars, Blessed Zbigniew Strzałkowski and Michal Tomaszek, left their homeland for Peru in 1989 to start missionary work in the Andes. The parish they worked in consisted of 90 villages, with no water or power supplies. Their work, therefore, had to be both pastoral and manual. In 1991, they were warned by the terrorist organisation Shining Path that they would to be killed if they stayed. In spite of the danger they remained with their flock. They were shot dead by the terrorists on 9 August 1991, tdirectly after a Mass they had celebrated in the local church in Pariacoto. Their colleague, Italian missionary Fr Alessandro Dordi, was killed on 25 August 1991. The beatification of the three martyrs took place on 5 December 2015 at Mass celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato and 500 other priests, with the congregation of 25,000 people gathered at the stadium in Chimbote, Peru.