{"id":7196,"date":"2026-08-10T18:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=7196"},"modified":"2026-09-02T18:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:51:13","slug":"two-franciscans-martyred-in-peru-35-years-ago-stayed-when-the-people-needed-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/two-franciscans-martyred-in-peru-35-years-ago-stayed-when-the-people-needed-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Franciscans Martyred in Peru 35 Years Ago Stayed When the People Needed Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Katarzyna Szalajko, OSV News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(OSV News) \u2014 On Aug. 9, 1991, two young Polish missionaries were killed by Peru\u2019s Maoist Shining Path guerrillas after refusing to abandon the people they served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-five years after Conventual Franciscan Fathers Michal Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzalkowski were martyred<\/a>, their legacy endures as a reminder that the Gospel is lived not through privilege, but through closeness to the people entrusted to the Church\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Father Jaroslaw Wysoczanski, the only surviving member of the three-man Polish Franciscan team that established the mission in Peru\u2019s western coastal Diocese of Chimbote, the anniversary of their death is not primarily about coming back to the day his friends perished, but rather to why they chose to remain in Peru<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA good shepherd does not abandon his flock when danger comes,\u201d Father Wysoczanski, who now ministers to migrants and refugees in El Paso, Texas, told OSV News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Leo XIV, who spent more than two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before his election, has pointed to the country\u2019s modern martyrs as examples of missionary fidelity<\/a>. Polish missionaries were murdered in the Andean town of Pariacoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The making of a missionary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Father Wysoczanski\u2019s memories offer a firsthand account of the months leading up to the killings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They \u201cset foot in Latin America for the first time\u201din the first days of December 1988, after leaving communist Poland, and traveling through Moscow. He said he and Father Strzalkowski arrived first. Months later they were joined by Father Tomaszek, completing the small Franciscan fraternity<\/a> that would begin one of the Polish province\u2019s first missionary ventures in Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were young Franciscans who, responding to the Lord\u2019s call, left our homeland, our culture and the security of a strong, well-organized Church to become brothers to distant and unknown people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missionaries quickly discovered that Peruvians knew exactly where they had come from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs soon as people heard we were from Poland, they immediately mentioned John Paul II<\/a>,\u201d Father Wysoczanski said. \u201cSometimes they also mentioned a football player, Grzegorz Lato, and his famous speed during the World Cup. It was a charming way of breaking the first barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Wysoczanski said that from the moment they set foot on Peruvian soil, \u201cwe felt people had been waiting for us for a long time,\u201d he told OSV News. \u201cWe were welcomed not as foreign missionaries but as members of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The friars had to learn a new language and serve isolated mountain communities scattered across the Andes. Many villages sat more than 6,500 feet above sea level and could only be reached on horseback or by mule after hours of travel over rough dirt roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had already been serving in Pariacoto, became instant allies of the young friars. \u201cThey introduced us to the local reality,\u201d Father Wysoczanski said, recalling how the sisters helped them understand the people, their customs and needs. \u201cTheir experience became an invaluable school of missionary life<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peru\u00a0in one of the bloodiest periods of modern history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the Franciscan arrival to the region, Peru struggled with widespread poverty, a severe cholera epidemic and prolonged drought. At the same time, the Shining Path insurgency was spreading terror across rural regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those circumstances \u201cour missionary work could not be limited to proclaiming the Gospel,\u201d Father Wysoczanski told OSV News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside organizing a school for catechists and serving more than 70 mountain communities, they helped local residents build roads and irrigation canals while responding to everyday needs. \u201cWe tried to help people overcome daily difficulties, restore hope and recover their dignity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe understood that the Gospel is lived not through privileges but through closeness; not through comfort but through self-giving,\u201d he told OSV News. \u201cThat is why we chose to live among the people of the Peruvian Andes, to walk with them, learn their culture, listen to their suffering and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe worked with great enthusiasm and dedication,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe greatest reward was the response of the people. We encountered extraordinary kindness, trust and willingness to cooperate.\u201d He said they \u201cfelt loved by the people\u201d to whom they had been sent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peru was entering one of the bloodiest periods in its modern history as Sendero Luminoso \u2014 Spanish for Shining Path \u2014 intensified attacks against civilians and public institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBombings, attacks on police stations, power outages caused by acts of sabotage, and a growing number of victims of violence became part of everyday life<\/a>. We lived in an atmosphere of constant tension and uncertainty,\u201d Father Wysoczanski told OSV News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe often spoke in our religious community about security and wondered what we should do if the terrorists came to our mission,\u201d Father Wysoczanski recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some time, missionaries were told that the Catholic Church was not a primary target. That assumption eventually proved false. Father Wysoczanski explained that for the Maoist insurgents, the Catholic Church was increasingly perceived as an obstacle to the revolutionary project because it defended human dignity, peace and freedom of conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shining Path was a Maoist guerrilla movement founded in Peru in 1970 by Abimael Guzm\u00e1n, a former philosophy professor who sought to launch a violent communist revolution modeled on Mao Zedong\u2019s Cultural Revolution in China<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group waged a two-decade insurgency marked by bombings, assassinations and attacks on civilians, government institutions and the Catholic Church. Peru\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated that about 70,000 people were killed during the country\u2019s internal conflict from 1980 to 2000, with Shining Path responsible for roughly 37,800 of those deaths. The conflict also devastated Peru\u2019s economy and left deep social scars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conscious decision to stay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Several months before the killings, a terrorist attack near Pariacoto claimed the life of an engineer working on a road construction project. \u201cWe had a conversation with the bishop and with the sisters,\u201d Father Wysoczanski said. \u201cThen we consciously made the decision that we would stay. We would not abandon<\/a> the people or the community to which we had been sent. It was a common decision of all the missionaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That choice cannot be explained simply in human terms, the Franciscan friar said. \u201cFather Michal and Father Zbigniew \u2026 could have moved to a safer place. No one forced them to stay,\u201d he said. But \u201cthey were convinced that a good shepherd<\/a> does not abandon his flock when danger comes. They wanted to remain with the people not only when life was peaceful, but also when they needed their pastors the most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer, he added, shaped those choices. \u201cFather Michal and Father Zbigniew were, above all, men of prayer,\u201d he told OSV News. \u201cIn our small monastery chapel, there were often no kneelers available because one of the brothers would spend long hours before the Blessed Sacrament<\/a>. I am convinced that their most difficult decisions matured there. It was not heroism based on human courage, but the fruit of a deep relationship with Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August tragedy in\u00a0Pariacoto\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the evening of Aug. 9, 1991, Shining Path militants seized Fathers Tomaszek and Strzalkowski and later executed them outside Pariacoto. Less than two weeks later, diocesan priest Father Alessandro Dordi<\/a> was also murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three were beatified together in 2015 as martyrs killed \u201cin hatred of the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Wysoczanski was not in Pariacoto that night. He had returned to Poland for a family visit and to bless his sister\u2019s wedding, after exchanging places with a younger Franciscan friar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey preached peace in a time of violence, taught people to pray the rosary, shared bread with the hungry and witnessed through their lives that God has a special love for the poor<\/a>,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were murdered because they remained faithful to the people they served,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to witnesses, Father Strzalkowski pleaded with the attackers to spare the postulants who were with them. \u201cIn a certain sense, it recalls Christ\u2019s words in Gethsemane: \u2018If you are looking for me, let these men go,’\u201d Father Wysoczanski said. \u201cEven in the face of death, they were thinking first about others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back after 35 years, he said one word now summarizes their witness more than any other. \u201cFaithfulness<\/a>,\u201d he told OSV News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFaithfulness until death, born of love,\u201d he said. \u201cAs the years pass, I discover new meanings in their lives and in their deaths,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI have always been aware that I could have shared their fate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their witness, he emphasized, speaks especially to those who hesitate to follow God\u2019s call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am convinced that this remains the most important message of their lives today,\u201d Father Wysoczanski said. \u201cLove that leads to faithful presence beside another person, and faith stronger than fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Father Wysoczanski serves migrants and refugees along the U.S.-Mexico border<\/a> in El Paso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A picture used as an official beatification photograph of Fathers Tomaszek and Strzalkowski is in fact the picture of the three of them, the missionary shared with OSV News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery often, tired and exhausted by serving these people, I return in my thoughts to those first months and years we spent in Peru,\u201d he said. \u201cI realized that what I am doing today is a deep and very close echo of what Michal, Zbigniew and I did together then. It was the pure Gospel<\/a> then, and I feel it is the same Gospel leading me today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: Conventual Franciscan Fathers Jaroslaw Wysoczanski, Michal Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzalkowski are pictured in Peru in an undated photo that served as the official photograph for the 2015 beatification of Fathers Tomaszek and Strzalkowski. They were killed by Shining Path guerrillas in 1991 after choosing to remain with the people they served. All three Polish missionaries were part of the Franciscan mission in Peru. (OSV News\/courtesy Father Jaroslaw Wysoczanski)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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