Father Franciszek Blachnicki was born on 24 March 1921 in Rybnik. In his youth he used to be a boy scout and a soldier and took part in the Polish defensive war of September 1939. He was part of the anti-Nazi resistance movement. He was also a prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp, in 1942 sentenced to death, which was commuted to 10 years of harsh imprisonment.

In 1945, he entered the Higher Silesian Seminary in Kraków and was ordained a priest on 25 June 1950. As a vicar, he worked in parishes in Tychy, Borowa Wieś, Łaziska Górne, Rydułtowy, Cieszyn and Bieruń Stary.

In 1957, he initiated a nationwide sobriety campaign called the Temperance Crusade. Already in 1960 it had 100,000 members declaring abstinence from alcohol. In August 1960, the state authorities banned its activities. Rev. Blachnicki accused them of breaking the law and persecuting the Church. For this reason, in 1961 he was accused of ‘distributing writings containing false information’, arrested and then sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment, suspended for three years.

In the academic year 1961-62, Rev. Blachnicki began his studies as well as teaching and research work at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1965, he defended his doctoral thesis. After his habilitation was not approved by the state authorities, he resigned from his work at the university. He wrote more than 600 scientific and popular publications.

In 1963, he resumed organising oasis retreats for young people, from which the Light-Life Movement developed over time. In 1970, the number of participants in summer oasis retreats was 1,500. In 1976, about 20,000 people took part, and ten years later, as many as 76,000.

Rev. Blachnicki lived in exile since December 1981. In 1982, he settled in Carlsberg (FRG), where he founded the International Light-Life Evangelisation Centre and the Maximilianum publishing house. In June 1982, he founded the Christian Service for the Liberation of Nations – an association that brings together Poles and representatives of other nations of Central and Eastern Europe around the idea of internal sovereignty and the unity of nations in the fight for liberation.

He was persecuted by the communist state apparatus from the mid-1950s until the end of his life. An investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance established that Rev. Blachnicki's death on 27 February 1987 in Carlsberg was the result of a homicide by administering lethal toxic substances.

Andrzej Sznajder

The reverse of the coin features the silhouette of Rev. Franciszek Blachnicki. The right side of the priest's coat is depicted as a striped camp uniform with the number 1201, referring to the priest's stay in KL Auschwitz. A cross with a stole and thorns is placed in the background.

The obverse carries the symbol of the Light-Life Movement and the image of a man and a woman following the Gospel

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