Ignacy Posadzy, SChr was a Polish Catholic priest who ministered to Polish migrants from the interwar period, through World War II and during the rule of Communist Poland.
39 Facts About Ignacy Posadzy
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Ignacy Posadzy served as superior general of the Society from 1932 to 1968.
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Ignacy Posadzy's parents came from a very religious background and they raised their children according.
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Ignacy Posadzy was their eighth child and was brought up in deep religious and patriotic traditions.
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Ignacy Posadzy participated in this strike together with his sister Anna, who was two years his senior.
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Ignacy Posadzy successfully completed gymnasium despite the difficulties faced by Polish youth.
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Ignacy Posadzy witnessed the struggles of seasonal workers, particularly those from the Russian partition of Poland.
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Ignacy Posadzy's great preaching talent as well as his zeal for confession were soon noticed.
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Ignacy Posadzy became friends with Nikodem Cieszynski, editor of "Rocznik Katolicki".
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Ignacy Posadzy became a co-editor of "Biblioteka Kaznodziejska" and "Wiadomosci dla Duchowienstwa".
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Ignacy Posadzy was a member of the Polish Writers' Union.
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In 1930, again at the request of Venerable August Cardinal Hlond, Ignacy Posadzy made another journey across the Atlantic to visit the Polish migrant communities in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
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In 1938, Ignacy Posadzy published a memoir of his travels to the Polish Communities of South America titled "The Way of the Pilgrims".
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Ignacy Posadzy served as Superior General of the Society until 1968.
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In 1930, prior to Ignacy Posadzy's making his second visitation of the Polish communities in South America, Venerable August Cardinal Hlond asked Ignacy Posadzy if he would consider leading a new religious order the Cardinal was seeking to establish.
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Ignacy Posadzy had come to see that sending diocesan priests for this sort of ministry had borne little fruit.
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Ignacy Posadzy requested a few days to consider the Cardinal's proposal.
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The next day Ignacy Posadzy told the Cardinal that he was ready to undertake the task of organizing the new order.
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Ignacy Posadzy organized lectures during which he reflected on his last trip to the Polish communities of South America.
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At the behest of Cardinal Hlond, Ignacy Posadzy went to Godesberg in Germany, where in 1927 Bishop Franz Xaver Geyer founded a congregation for German migrants: "Gemeinschaft von den heiligen Engeln".
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On November 4,1932, Ignacy Posadzy enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the novitiate.
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Ignacy Posadzy followed the directives given to him by Cardinal Hlond.
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Ignacy Posadzy sought the help and advise of the nearby Pallottine priests in Suchary, as well as the number of priests like Aleksander Zychlinski.
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Ignacy Posadzy sought opportunities for the Society's seminarians to complete their seminary studies at the seminaries of other religious orders or dioceses.
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Ignacy Posadzy directed clerics to Krakow to continue their theological studies.
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Ignacy Posadzy regularly visited these parishes and encouraged the priests that worked there, often in very difficult conditions.
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Ignacy Posadzy delivered many of these conferences during priestly retreats.
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Ignacy Posadzy prioritized seminary formation and reopened the Society's novitiate immediately after the war.
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Ignacy Posadzy relaunched the Society's publishing house and restarted issuing the monthly magazine "Msza Swieta" after the wartime disruption.
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When it was possible to obtain a passport for travel, Ignacy Posadzy traveled to Rome and had an audience with Pope Pius XII to discuss the future of the Society of Christ.
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The Pope encouraged Ignacy Posadzy to continue his work and granted an apostolic blessing.
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Ignacy Posadzy approached these challenges decisively, seeking to fulfill the Society's mission, while keeping his integrity, and the integrity of the Society, intact.
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Ignacy Posadzy refused to be associated in any way with the Polish communist party and the anti-Catholic campaign they regularly waged against the Catholic Church.
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When in 1958 he founded the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King, Ignacy Posadzy evaded the communist ban on founding new religious congregations by claiming that simply opened another Felician convent.
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In 1968, after 36 years of serving as the Superior General of the Society of Christ, Ignacy Posadzy retired, submitting himself to a life of prayer and spiritual leadership of the Society.
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Ignacy Posadzy devoted himself to prayer and meditation in the last years of his life with deep faith.
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Pope John Paul II, hearing about the death of Ignacy Posadzy, sent a telegram to the Society of Christ:.
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Ignacy Posadzy's remains are now interred in a chapel at the Society of Christ's headquarters in Poznan.
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On January 12,2007, Ignacy Posadzy's earthy remains were exhumated and identified.