August Hlond, SDB (5 July 1881 – 22 October 1948) was a Polish

Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

prelate who served as Archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno and as

Primate of Poland This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and was made a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

in 1927. He was the only member of the

College of Cardinals The College of Cardinals (), also called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. there are cardinals, of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Appointed by the pope, ...

to be arrested and taken into custody by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and for the final years of his life was a critic of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-backed communist regime in Poland. His cause of

beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...

commenced in 1992 and he was granted the title

Servant of God Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

. On 19 May 2018, he was named

venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

after

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

confirmed his

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...

Early life and ordination

Second son of a railway worker, he was born in the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

n village Brzęczkowice (), then ruled by Germany, now part of Mysłowice (), on 5 July 1881. At twelve-years-of-age, Hlond went to Turin, Italy to study for the priesthood in the

Congregation. He later studied a doctorate of philosophy in Rome, returned to Poland to complete Theology, and was ordained in Krakow in 1905.August, Cardinal Hlond
;

The Tablet ''The Tablet'' is a Catholic Church, Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017. History ''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by ...

; Page 4, 30 October 1948 In 1909 Hlond was sent to Vienna to be headmaster at a boy's secondary school. He remained in the city for 13 years, and working with spiritual and charitable organisations for Poles, and becoming Provincial of the Salesians for Austria, Hungary and Germany in 1919. Following the break up of Austria-Hungary after World War I, Pope Pius XI appointed Hlond as Apostolic Administrator for Polish Upper Silesia in 1922, and Hlond became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Katowice in 1925.

Bishop and cardinal

Hlond was consecrated as Bishop of Katowice on 3 January 1926. He succeeded Cardinal Edmund Dalbor, as Primate of Poland soon after and in 1927, was appointed Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Pace by

. Through the tumultuous 1930s, Hlond condemned "escapism" and called on the Church should challenge the evil realities of the times, and, speaking 12 languages, became an influential member of the College of Cardinals on the international stage. In 1932, together with Father Ignacy Posadzy founded the Society of Christ.

World War II

The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Nazi plan for Poland entailed the destruction of the Polish nation, which necessarily required attacking the Polish Church, particularly in those areas annexed to Germany.Jozef Garlinski; ''Poland and the Second World War''; Macmillan Press, 1985; p 60 In the territories annexed to Greater Germany, the Nazis set about systematically dismantling the Catholic Church - arresting its leaders, exiling its clergymen, closing its churches, monasteries and convents. Many clergymen were murdered. Elsewhere in occupied Poland, the suppression was less severe, though still harsh. The Papal

Nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

to Poland, Fillipo Cortesi, had abandoned Warsaw along with the diplomatic corps, after the invasion. Other channels existed for communications, including Cardinal Hlond. On 18 September 1939, at the request of the Polish Government, Hlond left Poland, with part of the Army, in order to reach Rome and report on the actions of the Nazis in Poland, and inform the world via Vatican radio and press. Hlond submitted an official account of the persecutions of the Polish Church to the Vatican, reporting seizures of church property and abuse of clergy and nuns in the annexed regions:The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942; pp. 34-51 In his final observations for

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

, Hlond wrote: Herb Hlonda Poznan

In 1939 Hlond spent several months in Rome for the

conclave A conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the pope of the Catholic Church. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Concerns around ...

of 1939. In January 1940,

Vatican Radio Vatican Radio (; ) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City. Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, DRM, medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. ...

broadcast Hlond's reports of German persecution of Jews and the Catholic clergy in Poland. These reports were included in the report of the Polish government to the

Nuremberg Trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

after the war. In March 1940, Hlond went on a pilgrimage to

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a ...

, in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Following the Fall of France, he remained in the country, staying at the Benedictine Abbey at Hautecombe, in Savoy, where remained, unable to leave, until Himmler ordered the Gestapo to arrest him in February 1944 (the only member of the Sacred College of Cardinals to be arrested by the Nazis). The Gestapo held him at their headquarters in Paris for two months, and, with the Soviet armies now driving the Nazis back from Russia, attempted to have him declare public support for the German war against the Soviet Union, in order to secure his release. The Gestapo offered to make Hlond Regent of Poland, but, according to The Tablet, "The withdrawal of all German troops from Poland was necessary, the Cardinal implacably insisted, before he could even discuss any matter whatsoever with a German officer." Hlond remained in the custody of the Gestapo, first at a convent at Bar-le-Duc, until the Allied advance forced the Germans to shift him to Wiedenbrtick, in Westphalia, where he remained for seven months, until released by American troops in 1945. The Americans flew Hlond to Paris, and then to Rome on April 25, finally returning to war ravaged Poland on 20 July 1945. Hlond reported in August 1941 to the Cardinal Secretary of State, Luigi Maglione, that the Polish people believed

had abandoned them. This was said in light of the Nazi persecution of the Polish church and clergy.

After the war

Pope Pius XII appointed Hlond as Archbishop of Warsaw, on 4 March 1946 and he was installed on May 30, amid immense crowds of supporters. The Polish Church faced great challenges: thousands of Polish clergy had been killed by the Nazis, and the Church and the Soviet-sponsored new regime in Poland were soon to clash. Hlond set about placing bishops on the empty Sees and reconnecting the Church with Rome. He spoke out against the Communist persecution of the Church. He issued a series of Pastoral Letters on behalf of the Polish Church regarding the new Poland, but these faced censorship at the hands of the new regime, and the government launched a nationalisation of church schools. In a May 1947 Pastoral Letter, Hlond wrote that "Since the days of St. Peter, the Church has not been subjected to a persecution such as that to which she is subjected today". Following Hlond's death in 1948, ''

'' wrote that "the nations of Eastern Europe which lie today beneath the police-regimes imposed from Moscow lost their most powerful spokesman".

Death and burial

He was buried in the crypt of St. John's cathedral in Warsaw. In March 2006 his body was transferred to the Chapel of St. John the Baptist.

Controversies

Relations with Polish Jews

In 1936, Cardinal Hlond, as Primate of Poland issued a pastoral letter on Catholic moral principles. The long (5,600-word) letter covered Catholic ethics policy, ethics principles and a section on "sins" (''Z Naszych Grzechów'') that addressed Christian shortcomings to love one's neighbours in accordance with God's law. The latter section included a brief discussion of the "Jewish problem" (''Problem żydowski''):

So long as Jews remain Jews, a Jewish problem exists and will continue to exist (...) It is a fact that Jews are waging war against the Catholic church, that they are steeped in free-thinking, and constitute the vanguard of atheism, the Bolshevik movement, and revolutionary activity. It is a fact that Jews have a corruptive influence on morals and that their publishing houses are spreading pornography. It is true that Jews are perpetrating fraud, practicing usury, and dealing in prostitution. It is true that, from a religious and ethical point of view, Jewish youth are having a negative influence on the Catholic youth in our schools. Reprinted 2004 by Routledge.

Hlond tempered these remarks with an admission that "not all Jews are this way" and forbade assaults on Jews or attacks on their property:

There are very many Jews who are believers, honest, just, kind, and philanthropic. There is a healthy, edifying sense of family in very many Jewish homes. We know Jews who are ethically outstanding, noble, and upright. One may love one's own nation more, but one may not hate anyone. Not even Jews. (...) it is forbidden to demolish a Jewish store, damage their merchandise, break windows, or throw things at their homes (...) it is forbidden to assault, beat up, maim, or slander Jews. One should honor and love Jews as human beings and neighbors

Yet, despite a warning to Catholics not to take an anti-Jewish moral stance, interspersed in the letter's words of friendship was an explicit condemnation of Jewish culture and also Judaism for its rejection of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

It is good to prefer your own kind when shopping, to avoid Jewish stores and Jewish stalls in the marketplace (...) One should stay away from the harmful moral influence of Jews, keep away from their anti-Christian culture, and especially boycott the Jewish press and demoralizing Jewish publications. (...) We do not honor the indescribable tragedy of that nation, which was the guardian of the idea of the
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
and from which was born the Savior. When divine mercy enlightens a Jew to sincerely accept his and our Messiah, let us greet him into our Christian ranks with joy.

Hlond's letter was criticized by Polish Jewish groups who saw it as offering support and a rationalization for

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. Another controversy was caused by Hlond's reaction to the

Kielce pogrom The Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of violence toward the Jewish community centre's gathering of refugees in the city of Kielce, Poland, on 4 July 1946 by Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

on 4 July 1946. While condemning murders, Hlond denied the racist nature of this crime. He saw the pogrom as a reaction against Jewish bureaucrats allegedly serving Communist regime, a common excuse among Polish antisemites. This position was echoed by Cardinal Sapieha, who was reported to have said that the Jews brought it on themselves. The

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

questioned Pope Francis's decision to name Hlond as

Venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

in a letter sent to Cardinal

Kurt Koch Kurt Koch (born 15 March 1950) is a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been a cardinal since November 2010 and president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity since 1 July 2010. He was the bishop of Basel from 1996 until ...

(the letter was also sent to the CCS and to Cardinal

Pietro Parolin Pietro Parolin (, ; born 17 January 1955) is an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic prelate who has served as the Holy See, Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State, Secretary of State since 2013, and has served as a member of the Council o ...

). The AJC noted that Hlond was anti-Semitic in his writings. The AJC's letter further argued that, after the 1946

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

, Hlond called the Jewish victims communists and said they had themselves to blame.

Removal of ethnic German bishops from
Recovered Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands () are the lands east of the Oder–Neisse line, Oder-Neisse line that over the centuries were gradually lost by Poland and colonized by the Germans, and that returned to Poland after World War II. T ...

After 1945, Hlond has been known to force

ethnic German Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War ...

s to resign their church posts in favor of Poles, thereby supporting the Polish integration of formerly eastern German territories that had been given to Poland by the Allies as compensation for territory taken by the Soviet Union. Maximilian Kaller was one of the

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

s who was removed from his diocese and deported to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. Kaller is now in process of beatification. Another bishop forced out was Carl Maria Splett, Bishop of Danzig.

Cause for beatification

The process of beatification commenced in 1992 and he was granted the title of

. Professor Franz Scholz, a German theologian, as well as many others have expressed their opposition to the proposed beatification of Cardinal Hlond. Scholz opposes his actions against post-war German expellees and civilians from territories ceded by Allies to the Polish Republic. Documentation (a ''

Positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

'') was submitted to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passi ...

(CCS) in 2008 and on 9 March 2017 a group of nine theologians approved naming Hlond "

" with 8 votes in favor and 1 abstention. The members of the CCS approved the cause on 15 May 2018 and

confirmed Hlond's

allowing Hlond to be named as

on 19 May. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Observed i ...

for this cause is the Salesian priest Pierluigi Cameroni.

Hierarchical offices

References

External links

Martin Rudner report of letter by Polish Primate Cardinal August Hlond's
* * * * *

List of Primates of Poland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hlond, August 1881 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Polish cardinals Archbishops of Gniezno Archbishops of Warsaw Bishops of Poznań Bishops of Warmia Burials at St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw People from Mysłowice Clergy from the Province of Silesia Polish anti-communists Pope Pius XII and World War II Salesians of Don Bosco Salesian bishops Salesian cardinals Society of Christ Fathers Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis Antisemitism in Poland Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Roman Catholic bishops of Katowice