On Tuesday, 120 years passed since the birth of the Card. Stefan Wyszyński named the “Primate of the Millennium”. On this occasion, a holy mass and a prayer at the sarcophagus were celebrated in the cathedral in Warsaw, and an educational picnic was held in Krakowskie Przedmieście. In just over a month, the beatification mass of Cardinal Wyszyński will be held.
Stefan Wyszyński was born on August 3, 1901, in Zuzela by the Bug River. In 1920, he entered the seminary in Włocławek. He was ordained a priest in 1924. He studied canon law at the Catholic University of Lublin, in 1929 he obtained a doctorate in canon law. During the German occupation, he was in hiding. He conducted a conspiratorial educational campaign and acted as chaplain of the Home Army. In 1946 he became the bishop of Lublin, and two years later – the archbishop of Gniezno-Warsaw and the primate of Poland.
In September 1953 he was arrested. He was imprisoned in several places, including in Rywałd, Stoczek Warmiński and Komańcza. He regained freedom in October 1956 and returned to Warsaw. He was the initiator of the Great Novena, which was the nine-year program of moral renewal of the Polish nation from 1957 to 1966, before the millennium of Poland’s baptism. He took part in the preparations and sessions of the Second Vatican Council. In his biography, it has been emphasized that in the face of social conflicts he stood up for human and national rights. In September 1978, he went with a delegation of Polish bishops to Germany, which was the implementation of the idea of Polish-German reconciliation and forgiveness.
He died on May 28, 1981.