Blessed Antoni Julian Nowowiejski

Blessed Antoni Julian Nowowiejski was bishop of Płock for nearly thirty-three years, as well as an expert on the liturgy and a historian. When the Germans occupied Płock, he did not leave his diocese. He died as a prisoner of the German camp at Działdowo. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on May 28.

He was born on February 11, 1858, in the village of Lubienia near Opatów, the son of a head forester. He completed secondary school in Radom, and in 1873 he moved with his parents to Płock. A year later, at the age of sixteen, he entered the seminary there. He continued his studies at the Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, graduating in 1882 with a master’s degree in theology. He was ordained a priest in Płock on July 10, 1881.

He then taught Latin, liturgy, and moral theology at the Płock seminary. He was its vice-rector and, from 1901, its rector. He also served as vicar general of the diocese and organized the rebuilding of Płock Cathedral. On June 12, 1908, Pope Pius X appointed him bishop of Płock, and on December 6 of that year he received episcopal consecration in Saint Petersburg. In 1930 Pius XI conferred on him the dignity of titular archbishop.

As bishop he opened a minor seminary, enlarged the major seminary, and created the first diocesan museum in the Kingdom of Poland. He convoked two diocesan synods, in 1927 and 1938, took an active part in the work of the Polish episcopate, and headed the Missionary Union of the Clergy. His multivolume “Wykład liturgii Kościoła katolickiego” (Exposition of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church) is among the most important Polish works on the liturgy, and his monograph “Płock” describes the history of the city and of Mazovia. The University of Warsaw awarded him an honorary doctorate.

After the Germans occupied Płock in 1939, he remained in the city with his faithful. On February 28, 1940, the Gestapo arrested him together with his auxiliary bishop, Leon Wetmański. For nearly a year the two were interned at Słupno near Płock. In March 1941 they were taken to the German camp at Działdowo (Soldau) and locked in a separate cell. SS men beat and humiliated the eighty-three-year-old archbishop, and according to witnesses they tried to force him to desecrate the cross. He prayed, blessed his fellow prisoners, and gave them courage.

The Martyrology states that he died at Działdowo, worn down by hunger and cruel torments. According to German documents this happened on May 28, 1941. The exact circumstances of his death are not known, and his burial place has not been found to this day. That autumn Bishop Wetmański also died there; he too is now counted among the blessed.

John Paul II beatified him on June 13, 1999, in Warsaw, together with 107 other Polish martyrs of the Second World War. In his homily he named him first: “Archbishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, Pastor of the Diocese of Płock, tortured to death at Działdowo.” In Poland the 108 martyrs are commemorated together on June 12.