Near Munich in Bavaria, in Germany, Blessed Michael Kozal, auxiliary bishop of Włocławek and martyr, who, for the defense of the faith and the freedom of the Church under the wicked Nazi regime, was confined for three years with unconquered patience in the death camp within the Dachau concentration camp, until he completed his martyrdom.
Lifespan: 1893–1943
Beatified: 14 June 1987 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 26 January
Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44)
Michael Kozal was born on 25 September 1893 in the village of Nowy Folwark, in the Archdiocese of Poznań, Poland, into a poor and large, deeply devout family.
After completing his secondary studies, he entered the Seminary of Poznań, but with the outbreak of the First World War he was compelled to finish his formation at the Seminary of Gniezno. In the cathedral of that city he was ordained a priest on 23 February 1918. In 1929 he became rector of the seminary, and ten years later, on 12 June 1939, Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Włocławek. On 1 September of that same year Nazi forces invaded Poland, and Bishop Kozal became a point of reference for his people. He protested vigorously, though without effect, against the abuses inflicted upon the Church, and on 7 November he was arrested together with other priests.
In January 1940 he was transferred to the Salesian Institute at Lad under house arrest; on 3 April 1941 he was deported to the concentration camp at Inowrocław and, a few days later, to that of Dachau.
Having contracted typhus, he was put to death on 26 January 1943 by a lethal injection administered by the camp physicians. John Paul II beatified him in Warsaw on 14 June 1987.