Władysław Gurgacz was born to Maria and Jan Gurgacz in Jabłonica Polska, a village near Krosno, on 2 April 1914. He finished the primary school in Jabłonica and the secondary school in Korczyna. At 17, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Stara Wieś.

In 1937, he undertook studies in philosophy in Cracow. On 7 April 1939, he made the act of complete sacrifice for the homeland in need at the Jasna Góra monastery. In August 1942, he was ordained as a priest at Jasna Góra. When World War II ended, he became a parish priest in Gorlice, and then in Krynica. He publicly cautioned against the rule of the Soviet occupiers, who sought to shatter the unity and Catholic faith of the Polish people.

Rev. Gurgacz’s sermons came under scrutiny by the communist services. Expecting to be arrested, the priest fled Krynica and joined the “Gendarmerie” unit of the Polish Underground Independence Army, which was stationed in the forests of the Beskid Sądecki mountain range. The partisans would call him “Father”, but the priest himself adopted the nickname “Sem”, which was an abbreviation for the Latin Servus Mariae – a Servant of Mary. He instructed his companions to act in accordance with Christian ethics.

The “Gendarmerie” was tracked down by units of the communist Department of Security. In the spring of 1949, it split into smaller groups. The one in which the Jesuit found himself, having no funds to continue its activities, conducted a confiscation operation. On 2 July 1949, the partisans raided a state bank in Cracow. Eventually, all members of the group were put under arrest. Rev. Gurgacz was not himself involved in the operation, but he surrendered to the security service. He explained his decision as follows: “I did not run away [...], because I did not want to abandon the members of the organisation and, just like them, I wanted to bear responsibility.”

All the inmates were subjected to a harsh investigation in the prison located at Montelupich Street in Cracow. On 13 August 1949, with his last words, Rev. Gurgacz addressed the Military District Court: “[...] these young people, who are now standing trial before this court, are not bandits, as you slanderously call them, but defenders of their homeland! I do not regret what I did. I acted in line with what millions of Poles think, those Poles whose current fate was decided by the bayonets of the NKVD. I will go to my death gladly. What is death, anyway?... I believe that every drop of innocently shed blood will produce thousands of your opponents and lead to your undoing”.

Władysław Gurgacz was falsely portrayed as a “ringleader” and his indictment was also an attack on the Polish Church.

On 14 September 1949, the priest and two soldiers of the “Gendarmerie”, whom the chaplain had comforted to the very end, were murdered in the courtyard of the Cracow prison. They were shot in the back of the head. The body of Władysław Gurgacz was secretly buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Cracow. His remains were identified in October 2018 by the staff of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Tadeusz Płużański

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