Blessed Jan Franciszek Macha

3 December

Profile

One of four children born to Pawel Macha and Anna Cofalka. Jan felt a call to a priestly vocation, but was turned down by the seminary on first application in 1933. He studied law for a few months, but was accepted to seminary in 1934. Ordained a priest of the archdiocese of Katowice, Poland on 25 June 1939, just a few months before the Nazi invasion. During the war he worked to provide material and spiritual support to families and children who had lost parents in the fighting. Imprisoned on 5 September 1941, he was moved from prison to prison, repeatedly interrogated by the SS, and finally executed. Martyr.