Today, July 19, is the memorial of Blessed Karol Herman Stepien.
Karol Herman was born in 1910 in Lodz, Poland. His parents were farmers Jozef and Marianna Puch. Though from a poor family, he was able to study and attend the Franciscan seminary in Lviv (modern-day Ukraine). He was sent to Rome to study in the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure. He was ordained priest there in 1937.
He returned to Lviv, where he earned his Masteral degree in Theology at the Jan Kazimierz University.
He served in the parishes in Radomsko (Franciscan Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows) and Vilnius (Franciscan Monastery of the Assumption) and was requested by Bishop Kazimierz Bukraba to assist the parish priest of Piarsai (modern-day Belarus), Blessed Jozef Puchala.
In 1943, the Nazi soldiers attacked the town. Karol Herman refused to abandon the parish. He said, “Pastors cannot leave the believers.”
Those who stayed with the priests were taken by the Nazis to a barn. He was shot in the head in the barn, which was set on fire. Everyone, including Karol Herman, were burned alive.
Pope St. John Paul II beatified the martyred priest in Warsaw in 1999.