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The Polish Martyrs
Forever faithful to his flock,
Good Father Rapacz would not flee.
Steadfast he heard the soldiers knock.
Devout, the priest was made to bleed.
“For God I’ll suffer every loss,
For I shall not renounce the Cross.”
The Soviets with foul intent
Did eye the nuns where they did lay.
Pure Teodora to prevent
Rape, died to keep her sisters safe.
With faith in Christ, care for our friends,
From life through death Love never ends.
The soldier hero, brave Witold
At Auschwitz prison did resist,
Then spoke out bold to every Pole
That we oppose the Communist.
To speak the truth, expose the lie,
Is cause enough to give one’s life.
A teacher, sister, and a friend
Defied the Nazi, saved the Jew:
Maria Anna met her end
In taunting, whipping, yet was true.
The pious deeds of life will teach:
More than our words, our acts do preach.
In gentle Christian charity
He blessed the rocks tied to his feet:
Jerzy in Solidarity
When drowning did not know defeat.
The Party hoped the priest had died.
The martyr was beatified.
Some twenty-thousand Polish men
Were heaped in Katyn’s forest grave.
A bullet each to every head
From Stalin and Red Army knaves.
The ending of each Deviled story
Is God bringing souls to glory.
The Moslem shot him in the chest
Yet Saint John Paul was saved from death.
When asked, “How did you live,” he said,
“Our Mother steered the bullet’s path.”
As in the way of Christ and Mary
We Christians pardon enemies.
One hundred eight brave Polish martyrs
Bear witness to Christ’s victory.
Their gift of faith restores our hope,
Inspires in us fidelity.
As in the way of Christ and Mary
The Christian pardons enemies.
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Notes:
1. Father Michał Rapacz (1904-1946), beatified 15 June 2024
2. Sister Maria Teodora (1889-1945), Servant of God
3. Calvary Captain Witold Pilecki (1901-1948)
4. Sister Maria Anna Kratochwil (1881-1942), beatified 13 June 1999
5. Father Jerzy Popieluszko (1947-1984), beatified 6 June 2010
6. Katyn Massacre (April-May 1940)
7. Saint John Paul II (1920-2005), canonized 22 April 2014
A version of this poem was composed for the Benedict XVI Institute.
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Michael Curtis is an architect, sculptor, painter, historian, and poet, who is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Common Sense Society. He has for more than 40 years contributed to the revival of the classical arts. He has taught and lectured at universities, colleges, and museums, including The Institute of Classical Architecture, The National Gallery of Art, et cetera; his pictures and statues are housed in over four hundred private and public collections, including The Library of Congress, The Supreme Court, et alibi; his verse has been published in over twenty journals; his work in the visual arts can be found at TheClassicalArtist.com, and his literary work can be found at TheStudioBooks.com.
The twentieth century is a heavy account-book of mass murder. This poem touches on one facet of that horror — the crucifixion of Poland at the hands of both the Soviets and the Nazis.
The slaughter of over 20,000 members of Poland’s officer class, police force, and intelligentsia at Katyn was brought up by the Soviets as a charge against Nazi defendants at Nuremberg. The Germans offered the irrefutable published evidence that they had gathered when the Katyn graves were discovered in 1943, which clearly showed Soviet responsibility for the mass murders.
The Allied judges simply dropped the charge, without comment. But they said nothing at all, in order to allow Stalin and the Communists to save face. It wasn’t until 1993 that the Russians admitted their guilt in the matter.
Poems like this are depressing, but they are vitally necessary. Thank you, Professor Curtis. I personally recall that as late as 1990 stupid left-liberals in academia were denying that Communists had killed those Poles at Katyn.
All sadly true. I would only add that Poland suffered under Bismarck’s kulturkampf and Russian Imperial rule, too — though not nearly to the extent it would in the 20th century.
Thank you for drawing attention to these heroic martyrs. Poland — the nation that saved Europe at Vienna — was for two centuries very much a nation of martyrs, but anchored itself in its faith through everything. Thank your for the commemoration they deserve. (And thank you for all your efforts in the visual arts, as well.)
Poland. For good or bad, always at the centre of things.
RT (Russian Television) recently ran a series of documentaries claiming that Poland was an artificial country and suggesting Russia had a historical claim over its territory.
Are the Russians warning Poland off supporting Ukraine, or giving a foretaste of what’s to come with further expansion?
A moving, thoughtful piece of poetry, Michael.
Michael, an inspiring story of God bringing souls to glory. Each vignette is a fresh picture of Poland’s fidelity, with relevance for all. I admire the couplet repeated as conclusion to the last two stanzas, about the “way of Christ and Mary,” those sinless ones with such a vast array of enemies to pardon, which they did so as to redeem (or co-redeem) any enemy who repents. Another perfect couplet is Sister Teodora’s: “With faith in Christ, care for our friends/From life through death, Love never ends.” Thanks for these marvelous words!
As a student at the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, we toured Auschwitz, met with John Paul in Czestochowa and were taught Russian literature among other things by a Jewish husband a wife team that survived the Warsaw ghetto of WWII. As we toured Auschwitz, one of my fellow students spent a lot of time staring at a half-filled room of suitcases all marked with the names of the former owners. I asked him why he was spending so much time peering in at the luggage. His response was he was looking for the names of his grandparents on the bags. Later known as Pope John Paul II, we were given a personal tour by him of the Czestochowa Monastery including a personal viewing of The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, also known as Our Lady of Czestochowa icon. From our Polish teachers we learned a lot about survival in the Warsaw ghetto. This flood of memories comes back to me by reading your trenchant and marvelous poem providing sparkling vignettes of the heroism of the Polish people. Thank you for such reverential writing. FYI: I think you mean in note #3 Cavalry Captain and not Calvary Captain.
Michael, thank you so very much for this stark, poetic wake-up call at a time we should all be looking to the heinous acts of the past in order to fully appreciate exactly where we are heading if we choose to ignore the shocking lessons history has to offer. For me, these lines are particularly striking: “To speak the truth, expose the lie, / Is cause enough to give one’s life.” I’ve often wondered how far I would be willing to go in the name of Truth, which makes me respect “The Polish Martyrs” with grave ferocity.
Thank you, Mr. Curtis, for an inspiring song of patriotism and doing the right thing.