Blessed Michał Czartoryski (1897-1944)

Prince, architect, Dominican friar, chaplain of the Home Army, blessed

Prince Jan Franciszek Czartoryski was born on 19 February 1897 in Pełkinie near Jarosław. He received a careful thorough education in a private school near Warsaw, and after passing his maturity exam in Kraków he studied at Lviv Polytechnic, obtaining the title of architect engineer. He took part in the defence of Lviv in 1920 and later also in plebiscite activities in Sosnowiec. In 1927 he joined the Dominican Order and, having renounced the inheritance of the family estate, after perpetual vows he took the name of Michał. As a Dominican, he dealt with training of novices and students and the expansion of the  monastery of St. Dominic in Warsaw. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising as a chaplain. After Powiśle was seized by the German troops he refused to escape, staying with the wounded insurgents in a hospital set up in a building at the corner of Smulikowskiego and Tamka streets, where on 6 September 1944, he was shot together with the wounded. On 13 June 1999 he was beatified in Warsaw by Pope John Paul II as one of the 108 martyrs of the Second World War.

The exhibition is prepared by the students of The August Witkowski Complex of Schools of Road-Building Land Surveying and High Schools in Jarosław.