Józef Bilczewski
Józef Bilczewski (26 April 1860 – 20 March 1923) was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Lviv from 1900 until his death. He served as a theological and dogmatics professor in the Lviv college after himself having earned two doctorates in the course of his own studies. He earned a reputation as a learned and cultured man; these qualities led to Emperor Franz Joseph I nominating him for the Lviv archdiocese as its head. Pope Leo XIII named him as its archbishop and he set to work prioritizing a range of different pastoral initiatives aimed at revitalizing the faith within people and also prioritizing ecumenical cooperation with other denominations.
Bilczewski aided his people throughout the onslaught of World War I organizing relief and food for those displaced and those who became refugees; he likewise aided beggars and the homeless in his archdiocese. In 1918 he did all he could to smooth tensions during the Polish-Ukrainian War and he collaborated with his brother bishops in helping their people when the conflict escalated; he likewise did the same thing during the Bolshevik occupation of Poland and Ukraine while also collaborating with the apostolic nuncio Achille Ratti - the future Pope Pius XI.
His cause for sainthood commenced in 1944 and he became titled as a Servant of God while the confirmation of his life of heroic virtue allowed for him to be named as Venerable on 18 December 1997. The confirmation of a 1995 miraculous healing enabled Pope John Paul II to preside over Bilczewski's beatification in Lviv on 26 June 2001 while the recognition of another allowed Pope Benedict XVI to canonize him on 23 October 2005 in Saint Peter's Square.
Patron saint of Archdiocese of Lviv; Teachers; Wilamowice; Beggars; Homeless people
In the Martyrology
- March 20 Saint Józef Bilczewski, archbishop of Lviv