Fr Władysław Gurgacz was born on 2 April 1914 in Jabłonica Polska, a tiny town in Podkarpacie, as the boy of Jan and Maria Gurgacz. He grew up in a profoundly spiritual family, in an atmosphere of love for religion and attachment to conventional values. From an early age, he displayed a priestly vocation.
After graduating from junior advanced in Korczyn, he joined the Society of Jesus in the Old Village at the age of 17. As a Jesuit monk, he underwent intensive spiritual and intellectual formation, educated in Pinsk, Nowy Sącz and Warsaw. Priestly ordination was accepted in 1942, in the midst of a warstorm, at the hands of Bishop Teodor Kubina at Jasna Góra in Czestochowa.
The priesthood of Fr Gurgach had a peculiar dimension from the beginning. He came to service as a minister in times of brutal war and subsequent enslavement of Poland. After the war, he became a infirmary chaplain in Gorlice, where he provided spiritual and intellectual assistance not only to patients, but besides to medical personnel, frequently tired and wounded with war experience. From 1947 to 1948, he served in Krynica, where he lived with the maid sisters. It was in Krynica that his bond with the independency movement became connected – with the armed unit of the Polish Underground independency Army, which in time accepted him as chaplain.
ÂHe was not a guerrilla with a weapon in his hand, but his spiritual leadership and perfect support for the soldiers of the anti-communist underground was of large importance. To many of them he was not only a priest but besides a moral signpost. In his sermons and conversations, he emphasized the request to preserve dignity, avoid retaliation, while at the same time faithful to his homeland and the Gospel. The choice of life on the part of PPAN was a consequence of conscience for him – he refused to accept the fresh order imposed on Poland by the russian Empire. The underground army with which he was associated was 1 of the many forms of opposition that Poles took against the communist regime, and its soldiers, though few, were the last bastion of the conflict for independence.
Fr Gurgacz acted under the pseudonyms “Father” and “Sem”. He gained large authority among PPAN members, although his views were not always easy to accept. He openly opposed the execution of death sentences on communist officers or informers, which was the origin of controversy even in the ranks of organizations. Gurgacz believed that Poland, in order to be truly free, must besides be morally clean – and violence, even in the name of righteous ideas, remains evil. His sermons and attitude frequently resembled the spiritual continuation of the tradition of Fr.
The communist authorities were aware from the beginning that the fight against the underground could not end only by military victory. They besides had to break the spiritual backbone of society. And specified a symbol of integrity was Fr Gurgacz. On July 2, 1949, he was arrested by safety officials in Kraków. The way began through torment: interrogation, isolation, attempts to break will. The trial was showy – the government wanted to intimidate not only independency activists, but besides the full clergy, which remained the most crucial base of independent thought in People's Poland.
The Military territory Court in Kraków, acting in an ad hoc manner, sentenced Fr Gurgach to death punishment on 13 August 1949. The judges were Władysław Stasica and Ludwik Kiełtyk, and the prosecutor Henryk Ligiza – these names inactive evoke emotions among researchers of the past of Stalinist repression in Poland. The conviction was executed on 14 September 1949 in the courtyard of Montelupich prison in Krakow. The execution was carried out with a gunshot to the back of the head, a method known for the Katyn murders. most likely the executioner was Władysław Szymaniak, listed in papers as commander of the firing squad. According to witnesses, Fr. Gurgacz retained complete peace and dignity before his death. In 1 account he said, “I will go to death willingly.”
For years, the communist authorities did not inform about the burial site of Fr Gurgacz. Only after the fall of the Polish People's Republic, in 1992, he was officially rehabilitated. His symbolic grave for many years was located on the Military Cemetery at Prandota Street in Krakow. In 2018, exhumations began at the Rakowicki Cemetery, as a consequence of which, in 2019, his remains were identified. On 14 September 2021, they were transferred to the War office of the Underworld Soldiers, where it rests among another heroes fighting communism.
Posthumously, on 9 November 2007, president Lech Kaczyński awarded Fr Władysław Gurgach with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polish Revival "for outstanding merits for the independency of the Republic of Poland". The celebration of the award was held on June 14, 2008. It was a symbolic act of state designation for a priest who paid the highest price for his beliefs and faithfulness to his conscience.
Today, the memory of Fr Gurgach is growing. His character appears in textbooks, historical publications, documentary films. The most crucial effort to present his destiny to a wide audience was the 2018 movie "Gurgacz. The Cursed Chaplains" directed by Darius Walusiak. This movie not only brings together the dramatic events of his life, but besides shows that spirituality and patriotism can go hand in hand, that a priest can besides be a guide of religion and moral leader of the nation in times of darkness.
The communicative of Fr Władysław Gurgach is an example of how much strength a man can have by his principles. He had no army, no political influence, no weapons. And yet he was a threat to a totalitarian state due to the fact that his life reminded him that there are values that can't even be choked with violence. He was 1 of those who remained firm in the most hard moments of Polish history. In his attitude there was no compromise with lying or consent to evil.
For contemporary Poles, the figure of Fr Gurgacz should not only be a subject of historical memory, but besides an inspiration. At a time erstwhile the planet is becoming increasingly relativistic and values are increasingly being challenged, his life reminds us that there are limits that must not be exceeded. That freedom without work loses meaning and religion without action is dead. Fr Władysław Gurgacz passed his way to the end – without bending, without giving up, in truth. And that's why, even after his death, he wasn't defeated.
Kamila Firlej
